BLACKPINK’s Lisa, BABYMONSTER, NCT WISH also crowd packed month
The Asian Games and the Chuseok holiday have come and gone, and the air has finally turned crisp with the arrival of autumn, but K-pop’s race to the top of the charts is running as hot as ever. October brings more than a dozen notable releases, building to a single day on Oct. 26 when three of the industry’s biggest names put out new music at once.
Before then, the calendar fills with quick returns from rising groups, a virtual idol act fresh off its first stadium show and a new solo EP from BLACKPINK’s Lisa.
KickFlip, one of JYP Entertainment’s youngest boy groups, returns on Tuesday with the mini album “KICK OFF THE WALL Pt. 1,” about six months after “My First Kick” in April. The eight-track album is led by the double title tracks “Puzzle Piece” and “Kick Off The Wall,” featuring U.S. rapper iann dior, with every member taking part in writing all the songs.
Oct. 12 is the month’s first crowded evening. NCT WISH of SM Entertainment releases its fourth mini album, “I SPY,” with six tracks led by the title track of the same name. It comes about six months after the group’s first full-length album, “Ode to Love,” which made it a million seller for the third straight release.
Virtual boy group PLAVE arrives the same evening with its fifth mini album, “HYPERDRIVE,” with the physical album following a day later. The quintet kicked off its first world tour, “KEEP IT MANIC,” at Incheon Munhak Stadium last month.
JYP’s rock band Xdinary Heroes also returns on Oct. 12 with the seven-track mini album “IMPULSE,” led by “Obsessed with Youth.” It is the band’s first release since leader and drummer Gunil left the group. THE BLACK LABEL’s girl group MEOVV joins the same day with the single “GO HARD,” about four months after its second EP, “BITE NOW.”
Sung Han-bin, formerly of project boy group ZEROBASEONE, makes his solo debut the same evening with his first EP, “DEAD:ALIVE,” about three years after his debut.
NMIXX releases its sixth EP, “Strange Muse,” on Oct. 19. The six-track album is led by “Birthday Wish” and includes the group’s first unit songs, with all six members credited as lyricists. The group will close its first world tour with encore shows at Inspire Arena in Incheon from Nov. 27-29.
Starship Entertainment’s IVE also drops a prerelease track the same day ahead of its mini album “Looks Can Kill” on Oct. 26. It will be the group’s first album in about eight months, since the full-length “REVIVE+” in February. Starship has built the release around a cinema concept, teasing it with projection mapping on Seoul high-rises and film-style posters across the Seongsu neighborhood.
BLACKPINK’s Lisa follows on Oct. 23 with “PRESS PLAY,” a six-track EP led by “SaWaDiKa,” which came out early last month. That single was her first solo music since her first full-length album, “Alter Ego,” in February 2025.
YG Entertainment’s BABYMONSTER announced Tuesday that it will release a new song at 1 p.m. on Oct. 23. No further details beyond the date have been revealed. The release comes about four months after the digital single “SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA,” as the group continues its second world tour, “CHOOM.”
HYBE’s girl group ILLIT releases its fifth mini album, “BREAK EVEN,” at 6 p.m. on Oct. 26. The title borrows the economic term for a state of neither loss nor gain, with the album built around a refusal to keep pouring effort into a relationship that gives nothing back. It follows “It’s Me,” which peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group warms up with encore concerts at Inspire Arena on Oct. 17 and 18
IVE’s “Looks Can Kill” lands the same day, as does a new release from RIIZE of SM Entertainment. The six-piece boy band will put out a prologue single for its second full-length album, which is due next spring. The group revealed the plan at its third-anniversary fan meeting at Inspire Arena in September, which drew about 23,000 fans over two days.
AND2BLE, which brings together four former ZEROBASEONE members, follows a day later with its second mini album, “Sequence 02: Attraction,” on Oct. 27. The quintet’s debut album, “Sequence 01: Curiosity,” sold over 730,000 copies in its first week, ranking among the four highest first-week totals for a K-pop group’s debut album.
Gender-free boy band XLOV closes the month on Oct. 28 with its third mini album, “i=!,” about five months after “I, God” in May. “I, God” also sold over 200,000 copies in its first week, a personal best for the group, which debuted in January 2025.
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