KIRARA albums ranked
Hyper-prolific music producer KIRARA seems to never stop making music. In 12 years, she has released an incredible amount of music - between her studio albums, remix albums, live albums, EPs, singles and a bizarrely infectious track for Lush Korea.
We love pretty much everything she has done, but here, we rank her albums from amazing to very-slightly-less amazing.
7. rcts (2014)
KIRARA herself has kinda disavowed her 2014 debut album, calling it “unsophisticated” and “one-dimensional”. For us, that feels a little bit harsh. It’s a really good album that shows the potential KIRARA has. It might not be as well-developed as later releases, but for many artists, this would be an album to be proud of. The “Thinking Of” trilogy alone makes this album worth checking out, an early sign of KIRARA’s interest in thoughtful electronica and experimentation.
6. KM (2017)
The first of two remix albums by KIRARA. 2017’s KM was a collection of the best remixes the artist produced in her musical career up to that point. Here, KIRARA lovingly reinterprets songs from friends and other artists. For a collection of tracks not made with a single project in mind, it is surprisingly cohesive. Such is the potency of KIRARA’s voice, particularly during this time when her specific sound was being formed. With that said, KM slightly lacks the boundary-pushing edge of some of her later work, but there’s fun energy and groovy stuff here to make this worth a revisit. The Danpyunsun and The Sailors and Aseul remixes stand out.
5. KM2 (2020)
The second remix album on the list is her 2020 follow-up, KM2. This album features remixes done between 2017 and 2020, when KIRARA was establishing herself as a major name in Korea’s independent music scene. Some of the artists featured on this include Silica Gel, Huckleberry Finn, and SLEEQ. So, why put this album above KM (her first remix album)? Well, it’s very close. By the release of KM2, KIRARA’s interest in experimentation seemed to become a much more major part of what she does. The songs here have a strong sense of identity, variety and creativity. In particular, her remixes of Flash Flood Darlings, Cranfield, and jyangmyunsun are highlights. This is also possibly the best artwork of any KIRARA album.
4. moves (2016)
It’s pretty much all top-quality banger albums from here on in, with the gaps between each placement being wafer-thin. KMA-winning moves is the album that established KIRARA as a crucial voice in Korean music. The slick, big beat-inspired style that she would become known for takes shape here. Each track (named after a Pokémon move) shows vibrancy and character. In several ways, it is the actualisation of the potential shown on the first album, with everything feeling more developed, more fleshed out, more expansive. Tracks like BLIZZARD and AVALANCHE stand out, but, really, the whole album is lively and exciting. The only reason it’s not higher on the list is that KIRARA went on to do so much other incredible stuff. In fact, for a long time, moves was considered KIRARA’s most straightforwardly fun album until…
3. KIRARA (2025)
KIRARA’s fifth and most recent album is self-titled for a good reason. Despite it being the most feature-heavy album (with half the tracks including a notable feature), this feels like the KIRARA sound in its purest form. After making two back-to-back albums that reflected a darker attitude, KIRARA was faced with the limitations of music as a tool for healing. As a result, she produced KIRARA, a ravey riot album that captures her live energy perfectly. In some ways, KIRARA is a celebration of music for the sake of music, in which KIRARA seems to let go and just enjoy creating. It is also her most varied album, as KIRARA explores a variety of genre sounds, best symbolised by the oddly effective Hollow Jan featuring track Evaporation.
2. Sarah (2018)
A potentially controversial choice? Many would have had KIRARA’s third album, Sarah, at number one. And even though we’ve put it second on our list, it’s easy to see why it would get the top spot for others. Sarah is KIRARA’s most popular album, and it contains her two biggest songs - Wish and Worries. KIRARA’s strength has always been her ability to communicate strong emotions through dance music. Despite being an album full of alluring beats and basslines, Sarah has a palpable undercurrent of sadness, loss and melancholic introspection. The album deals with the death of friends from the LGBTQ community and the music world. Despite the sadness of this album, it is also an album of hope, about telling people who are considering suicide that they don’t need to. A truly beautiful album.
1. 4 (2021)
KIRARA’s back catalogue sometimes feels like a pseudo exploration of the different stages of grief. Whereas Sarah explores the sadness, and KIRARA explores a kind of acceptance, 4 is about anger and frustration. There’s not much we can say about this album that we haven’t said on several occasions (including our glowing 9.9/10 review), but suffice to say, we love this album. Just as with Sarah, the album has an outer shell of melodic big beat that is so damn danceable. But it’s under the surface where the real intent of KIRARA and her music exists. The undercurrent of frustration seeps into so much of 4, particularly on tracks like Disaster and the criminally underrated HRT. KIRARA’s music has always been praised for being densely idea-heavy and this is never more true than on 4, which is an absolute barrage of moving parts, a constant flux of riffs that perhaps reflects the anxiety channelled into this by KIRARA.
KIRARA’s connection to this album has become complicated over the years. While she has, at times, stated that it is her favourite of her albums, she has also expressed discomfort with being so political in her music. In a way, though, this comfort is apt for an album like 4, a challenging listen but one that is ultimately incredibly rewarding.