It’s been almost a year since we last heard from Pink Fantasy – an alarmingly long hiatus for a rookie group struggling to gain a foothold in the competitive K-pop market. Worse yet, despite sharing the same name, this iteration of Pink Fantasy is actually a sub-unit consisting of only four of the group’s seven members. Most glaringly, their iconic rabbit-headed “hidden” member is missing from Shadow Play (그림자). I’m still a little weirded out by the whole rabbit schtick, but it’s kind of disappointing to see it missing from this comeback. At the very least, the presence of a humanoid rabbit might have made Shadow Play feel less generic.
Along with the boys, many K-pop girl groups have opted for a darker sound this year. But rather than devolve into tuneless moodiness, this modern “girl crush” sound is most often tethered to beat-heavy instrumentals with vaguely exotic electronic loops. Shadow Play is no different, putting greater emphasis on its production than melody.
The chorus is the kind of repetitive nonsense we hear too often from K-pop’s current crop of girl groups. Too many “rum pum pums” and “shakey shake its” in place of an actual refrain. It’s as if the producers lose interest halfway through the track and just fill the choruses with halfhearted asides. When strung together, they approximate a melody. But, there’s not really much here. I mean, imagine stripping Shadow Play down to an acoustic version with only guitar and voice. It would sound pretty ridiculous, and quickly reveal the song’s shortcomings. Thankfully, the production attempts to fill many of these gaps. The beat is nothing new or interesting, but has a satisfying thump to it. Still, this is a far cry from the daring, theatrical Fantasy from last summer. I blame the rabbit.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
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The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
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So they lost the creepy rabbit head and replaced it with creepy color contacts. Honestly I couldn’t tell it was a subgroup – with all the extra dancers in similar costumes, there was no visual obvious cue. Maybe they hush hush actually lost a few members and the ex-idol agency founder finally thought better of appearing in her own group with creepy rabbit head …. ?
It sounds like a G-idle copy cat with half the chutzpah. Or like that Secret Number rookie group “Who Dis”. In other words, basic girl group kpop 2020 edition.
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“I mean, imagine stripping Shadow Play down to an acoustic version with only guitar and voice. It would sound pretty ridiculous, and quickly reveal the song’s shortcomings.”
Thanks for articulating oh so well my complaint about most K-Pop songs in 2020. The “melodies” are not. There are notes but they aren’t strung together in any catchy or interesting way. And honestly if I wanted shouty amelodic stuff I’d just go back to my extreme metal, least there’s more energy and the instrumentation tends to be much more interesting to me.
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Pink Fantasy has to be one of the worst promoted groups I’ve ever come across, which is a shame since they’ve shown before that they can deliver a good song and performances. But instead of promoting the group as a whole, they’ve only had 2 singles as full a group and this (Pink Fantasy Shadow) marks their THIRD subunit already. That’s just ridiculous.
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This is their 5th subunit 2 didn’t even debut Mydoll is a weak excuse for a K-Pop company and a joke really
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Mydoll is also a freaky name for a K-pop company…
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Yeah it sounds like the developers of one of those crappy dress up mobile apps
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I believe that three members had left Pink Fantasy in the past year due to health issues, and Yubin left shortly before the comeback, but she wasn’t part of their last song, so barely anyone noticed. The only members that did not participate were Daewang (the rabbit) and Yechan (which I found weird because she’s their main vocal).
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I honestly just feel bad for Daewang. Having to be referred to as “the rabbit” by so many of us must be kind of embarrassing.
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