Review

Song Review: Momoland – Starry Night

With Starry Night, Momoland has released one of those K-pop “special albums.” This always makes me crack up because “special” should mean something exciting. In the case of idol releases, it just means: “we ain’t promoting this.” That’s too bad, because although Starry Night is a mediocre pop song, it offers a refreshing departure from the endless Bboom Bboom retreads Momoland have been dishing out over the past few years.

Starry Night gets a certain summer sound exactly right. I love the hazy, retro synths and soft backbeat. Coupled with a sneaky dose of rhythm guitar and dripping with layers of delicate strings, the track is like a fizzy gulp of soda. It goes down easy, for sure. I just wish Momoland did more with it. The actual songwriting is pretty one-note, with a repetitive chorus that lacks imagination. It’s propped up nicely by that fantastic instrumental, but the song never climbs to greater heights. The music video – such as it is – features the girls sitting on some crates and (mostly) engaging with the camera. And really, Starry Night is a song made for sitting on crates. It may elicit a sway. It certainly won’t make you break a sweat.

Still, in an era where K-pop automatically equates “summer” with “tropical,” it’s comforting to hear a song in this style – as unambitious as it may be. It may come off as faceless, but its amiable shimmer hearkens back to a simpler time in the industry. In short, I can objectively hear that Starry Night is nothing special. Yet, I feel I’ll be coming back to it occasionally over the next few months.

 Hooks 7
 Production 8
 Longevity 7
 Bias 8
 RATING 7.5

Be sure to add your own rating by participating in the poll below!

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10 thoughts on “Song Review: Momoland – Starry Night

  1. I’ve been following Momoland since the beginning. I must say I’m glad they have a song that’s no longer trying to ride the
    “BBoom bboom train” if you will. I think the overall vibe is nice and, I enjoy the verses considering the fact that it’s not an official comeback. However, the song doesn’t do anything interesting it and the chorus is SO ANNOYING. Something about the high pitched vocals in this song really gets on my nerves especially when nancy delivers them( which is the second time I’m having trouble with her voice since pinky love). In general, the vocals of the groups actually get showcased a little better, but the repetitive, high-pitched chorus really turns me off from this song.

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  2. I am going to try to be kind here. It seems that all is not well in Momoland. This is meant to be a gift to the fans, a lively summer fan service. So why are the girls looking so miserable? Or if not miserable, smiling with forced smiles. Or not even bothering to look at the camera even with how ever many takes they did. I hope the girls are doing OK.
    I loved Bboomm bboomm, also I was also one of the few who loved Bbaamm bbaamm.

    (Yes, for me there were a few vocals in there that were a wee too nasal or baby for me, enough to go oof, but not enough to go doof.)

    Moving on.

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  3. I like this song! Has a very city pop vibe which I highly appreciate and I love the chill aspect of it.

    It’s kinda disappointing how this is Momoland’s best song since BAAM! tho, I appreciate the song, but still, almost one and a half years and Starry Night is the best they’ve done. It’s kinda sad.

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  4. I Really think June is going Average as of right now because I expected something amazing to pop out in these past summers (most songs are just 8’s and we have no 9’s as of now ….. WE NEED SOME!)

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  5. OT: Hey Nick, Kim Sung Kyu released an OST ballad a couple days ago and it is vehrrrry nahhce. Nice high notes. oooh the feels. ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI70x0jEZA0

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  6. I’ve been listening to the very city pop instrumental on its own. Why couldn’t they have written a better melody line?

    Are you planning on reviewing Jun K’s new song “This Is Not A Song, 1929”? I’ve had it on replay all week.

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    • I’m not currently planning on it, but I may sneak it in. June’s proving to be a busy month for releases and RTK posts and all sorts of other stuff, so we’ll see!

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  7. The chorus is hideous to begin with, and then they produced their voices in way that accentuates just how bad it is. What… were they thinking…

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