We aren’t embarrassed to say that the soundtrack to Netflix’s new hit animated film KPop Demon Hunters will be at the very top of our Spotify wrapped at the end of this year. Every song is catchy, electric, and memorable with beats and feel like they could be played on the radio. And it’s all thanks to the care shown in casting real K-Pop artists to sing the music in the film.
Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) have separate actors who do their own vocals and singing. EJAE sings as Rumi, Audrey Nuna is Mira, and Rei Ami is Zoey. In addition, Jinu’s (Ahn Hyo-seop) vocals are by Andrew Choi. There’s a perfected mix in these songs between instrumental and story messaging. Which made it difficult to rank the songs in KPop Demon Hunters because we love them all. But that’s what makes it fun, right?
Here’s our ranking of the movie soundtrack in order from our most favorite to least.
What It Sounds Like (HUNTRIX: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami and KPop Demon Hunters Cast)
This is the moment where Rumi confronted the powerful demon lord of Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun) as someone who finally accepted her flaws as half-demon. Upon first watch, it was the only song to make us want to cry. EJAE’s vocals carried Rumi’s longing to reunite with her friends who were torn apart by her lies and secrets. After their heartfelt reunion, the song turned into an empowering anthem of self-acceptance in using love to defeat Gwi-Ma.
This song sung at the end of the movie captures the heart of it being the bond between Rumi, Mira, and Zoey. The messaging of girlhood and true friendship made us feel like we could do anything when owning both our strengths and weaknesses.
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Free (EJAE and Andrew Choi)
The intertwined storyline between Rumi and Jinu, the demon leading the boy band Saja Boys made to steal Huntrix’s fanbase, is tragically beautiful in partnership to the main plot. Rumi is just as torn with her demon side as he is. This duet is their attempt to convince each other to be strong in defying expectations of how people view them as good or evil.
After denying their growing feelings for each other, this pop ballad is their way of being honest in admitting they’ll only do what scares them if the other does so as well. EJAE and Choi sing their characters’ hopes and longing for a better life and each other with such honesty and beauty. And it’s impossible not to want to see Rumi and Jinu get their happy ending. This is one of the songs we’ve replayed the most.
Golden (HUNTRIX: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast)
Moments like these where stunning instrumental is used to drive the story forward matter to us. While the song was great, the plot-twist to K-Pop Demon Hunters is revealed in the last few lines. So, it naturally became a significant and memorable moment in the film. We learned that Rumi is hiding the fact that she’s half-demon from her best friends.
It’s heartbreaking to watch her sing about the day where she gets rid of her patterns so she wouldn’t have to isolate herself from them any longer. And the weight of the reveal along with how aesthetically pretty the song and music video is made us put this high on the list by default.
Your Idol (SAJA BOYS: Andrew Choi, Neckway, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, SamUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast)
We’ll be honest here and say that we’d get our souls taken by the charming Saja Boys. The song happens at the end of the movie where all hope is lost after Mira and Zoey fall to the band’s influence. Which makes the song’s rock instrumentals hit that much harder. Because it’s catchy and meant to lure you into singing along because the boys are so close to accomplishing their goal.
The hard-hitting drums and easy to follow chorus make it impossible to not play this on a speaker and jam out to it, even if it feels totally wrong to be a fan of a demon boy band. Ultimately, the song makes us feel powerful in an evil villain type of way.
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How It’s Done (HUNTRIX: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast)
As viewers who attempted to casually watch KPop Demon Hunters when first pressing play, this song quickly changed our minds. We put the volume up and started paying attention.
From the first note, we realized just how badass this hunter trio would be in both song and performance. These characters were fictional, but their pop stardom could be very real because of how good they were at everything. The beat drops and memorable hook was addicting. Along with the fluidity between action and vocals that made us dance and search for her phones to add the song to a playlist.
It was a great introduction to what would be coming our way because this song had already set a high bar to meet.
Takedown (HUNTRIX: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast)
Mira had known something was off with Rumi, but she was stubborn in admitting anything was wrong. Therefore, this was a time where tension between the girls is high. And demons took the opportunity to steal the souls of people on a train after Rumi failed to stay focused.
Zoe’s diss track against the Saja Boys detailed how demons deserved to die because they didn’t have feelings. Which Rumi thought was wrong after meeting Jinu. Therefore, we enjoyed the song, but it ultimately falls low on our ranking. Because it reminded us how such a division between the girls would negatively impact the people they’ve sworn to protect.
From a narrative standpoint, this song is one where the girls didn’t mesh together as a group. Although snappy in beat and rap, it can’t be higher on our list because it wasn’t a song every girl was proud of.
Soda Pop (SAJA BOYS: Andrew Choi, Neckway, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, SamUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast)
Saja Boys’ first song is probably the most fun song in the entire hour and thirty minutes. Sadly, it had to go at the bottom of our ranking because of it being the only song we could categorize as solely entertaining out of the movie soundtrack. It was cute but had meaningless lyrics comparing a girl to a refreshing drink. The performance made us laugh and smile as the girls watched and fought to dance to the song despite having lyrics we’d be a little embarrassed to sing along to.
KPop Demon Hunters is now available to stream on Netflix.
