[Bonus] Best Of 2017: Honorable Mentions

After the unofficial prologue of the previous post, it's time for some more teasing. I've picked five songs which barely missed out on being in the top 10. These will be unranked, and only have brief notes about each selection. There's absolutely zero reason why previous Best Of 20XX posts never included the music videos so I'll be remedying that starting this year. Here are the songs that almost made the cut.

Taeyeon - Fine

"My Voice" assembled many superstar tracks together, and leading the charge was this song. "Fine" is probably the strongest of her title tracks up until now. It's not a pure ballad / lullaby like "11:11," nor is it the dance number like "Why." Since she has many beautiful moments in this track across her vocal range, "Fine" was a lock for the top songs, and her appearance here as a solo act previews what is to come in tomorrow's reveals.

Dreamcatcher - Fly High

Dreamcatcher's revitalization in 2017 is a wonderful story, and would not be made possible without having a handful of good songs. "Fly High" was the best of their three new releases under the new name, as it sounds the most unified. The rapping is brief and packs a punch while the vocals are uplifting. Backed by a splendid instrumental and Jpop influences, this track concluded the first look at the rebranding. There is a lot of latent potential in this group that we've only scratched the surface of.

Bolbbalgan4 - Some

Variety is the spice of life, and Bolbbalgan4 was sure to provide a song with different tastes. Plus, Bolbbalgan4 isn't a digital monster for nothing. "Some" is soothing to the ears and Jiyoung's voice glides through the notes like a gentle breeze. Mix in some acoustic instruments and you have a soft fall classic.

Super Junior - Black Suit

Kinda sucks to have two songs that were reviewed earlier in the year (and so recently) but oh well. "Black Suit" is Super Junior's best work since the days of "Sorry Sorry" and under a completely different style. More mature and more refined, this classy dance number was the second best release for a boy group this year. Yeah, you can probably guess what's coming in the top 10...

Winner - Really Really

I said these were not in any order but after saying what I did about Super Junior above I'll have to add a little explanation here. "Really Really" is slightly below "Black Suit" because I was turned off by the high pitched voices during the rap-singing segments. Despite that, the strong vocal showing and killer instrumental fuel this song forward. It's still an extremely hype dance track and was a great way to rebound from Taehyun's departure. I'd argue it surpassed "Empty," which was my favorite track from Winner prior to this point.