First comebacks can be even more exciting than debuts. It’s where you begin to see the path of an artist. Will they double down and quickly develop a signature sound? Or, will they display their diversity with a new concept? I tend to prefer the former approach, unless I really disliked the debut song! With new single Zombie, Purple Kiss have chosen a stylistic switch-up, but retained some of the creepy edginess from March’s Ponzona.
Ponzona didn’t do much for me, so I’m happy to hear more bounce in Zombie’s sprightly step. It’s the girls’ take on a bright, quirky concept with a slight bitter taste that makes the sugar go down easy. This duality is on display right off the bat, as the sharp instrumental unveils its rhythmic guitar hook and we’re greeted by the song’s titular chant. This repeated vocal remains just short of cloying, aided by a performance that feels strong and assured. Horror-show shrieks pepper the playful verse, underlining an addictive rap.
The atmospheric pre-chorus is less engaging, as Zombie briefly loses its pace. But, the track quickly rebounds into a multi-pronged chorus. I’m of two minds about this series of refrains. It starts off strong, but quickly devolves into seemingly random melody lines that never form one cohesive whole. The “zombie-bie-bie-bie” hook ties everything together, but a stronger centerpiece would have alleviated some of the pressure put on that line. Even so, this is a welcome pre-Halloween dance track with just enough bite to keep Purple Kiss’s name on the tip of K-pop fans’ tongues.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
first. i really like this song, and the “zombie-bie-bie-bie” hook is satisfying af. better than ponzona. purple kiss are definitely set for #1 if they keep it up.
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I felt the same at first but on my like… 3rd listen I was completely obsessed. Lots of flourishes in the chorus that sound better each time and the rap actually doesn’t hurt the energy of the song
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wait where is ichillin’s debut got’ya (a.k.a. picky picky 2.0)’s review
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It ain’t coming, because I’m tired today and my opinion on the song is basically: “meh”
Same thing with Megamax’s debut. Maybe I’ll write about both later. (but most likely not)
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yeah, the song throughout felt like a picky picky ripoff and was too underwhelming for a debut.
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Ichillin debut. Its a meh from me too. I wrote a lengthy rant paragraph about the state of current gen girl group vocals, then deleted it.
As for Megamax, the most notable thing to say is that they didn’t google the name from a US IP address. It sounds like an adult product name, and it is an adult product but not for what you might think. Its the name of a brand of adult diapers.
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Lol, oops. It might be a little obscure to top VIXX’s brand name + swear word for multilingual cringe-factor, but it’s not great!
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I like it! Purple Kiss remind me of ONEUS in that they don’t seem overly attached to a single sound, but all their pieces (vocals, rap, performance) are solid. I’m only listening to the EP for the first time now but I’m liking it even if nothing’s jumped out at me yet. I like that they’ve kept the spoopy aesthetic going – I’m not a big fan over overly cute concepts so agree that the little bit of bite helps. The video was fun too – I’ve been enjoying a lot of stages and performance videos recently but haven’t been interested enough to rewatch an MV in a while. And the cameo from ONEWE’s Cya was a nice Easter egg for RWB fans.
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CyA co-wrote the lyrics for Zombie.
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Nice!
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I was pretty fond of Ponzoma. It was a solid debut imo and i think this is a pretty decent followup. Can’t lie it didn’t grab me as much I would’ve wanted and the instrumental feels kinda derivative but its a fun song nonetheless.
SIDENOTE…B-Side 2AM is playing while I’m typing this and this is one smooth ass song. Can We Talk Again was my favorite PK track but i think it’s finally been topped.
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Finished the mini. Not bad. Didn’t really have a super strong standout or anything but decent overall. I will say tho, i like Yuki a lot. For someone who doesn’t even speak Korean that well she was sliding on this album. Excited for her development. So Why and 2AM are probably my favorites of the record
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I’m surprised by how much I like this – I think the chorus could definitely be more impactful, but I’m really impressed with the overall performance. These are some impressive rookies! Also, I generally do not like the very serious creepy-scary-horror version of Halloween, so this is going to be the perfect Halloween anthem for me – slightly creepy, in the spirit, but still bright and a ton of fun.
Still not 100% sure how I feel about ‘Purple Kiss on bloody top’ as a catchphrase, but it has embedded itself into my brain so I guess it’s effective.
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please also do a review on their b-side track (Cast pearls before swine)….!!!
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What a pleasant early treat to Halloween that’s only a month away!
For a comeback succeeding an artist’s debut, this is really nice.
I definitely do understand the perspective of some who say that it doesn’t appear to have a lot of interesting components when you dissect this song given how so many k-pop artists have been doing retro-funk genre to death. But for me, this song is really infectious from the very first listen. I love how the groovy energy never falters throughout this song. Yuki’s rap also deserves credit because, it’s nice! I don’t know why but rap verses succeeding the first chorus are guilty of this sudden break in a song’s energy and it pains me greatly.
This song’s got some real bite to it! Purple Kiss’ onomatopoetic chorus of “Zombie” is also really fun to me (and personally one of the better examples of it within this year). I’ve already submitted myself to the groove of this song
I think this comeback is also evident that artists can still retain the same concepts whilst adopting different sound personalities, and thus breaking the boundaries of conceptually dark ideas having to be moody.
It’s like comparing ghosts to humans… I guess. Hear me out!
Sound-wise, “Zombie” is nothing like the girls’ debut “Ponzona” apart from sharing a mutual integration of strings. Concept-wise? Purple Kiss retained their horror concepts (albeit masked in a twisted, joyous character). I love it.
There’s so much I want to say but I’m running out of time (school calls for me…) so before I fully turned into a dancing zombie: I bet you guys in the future that this song will sink its musical teeth to you one way or another… 😉
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It was fun and I really liked the MV! The brain cakes and stuff were just 😂😂 and Cya’s cameo was nice! The zombie bie bie bie chorus though repetitive is super catchy and I’m already humming it. The only part that felt jarring was the pre-chorus… If I had heard this for the first time in a live I would have thought they were all singing off-tune but other than that the song’s alright!
I’m looking forward to their live vocals because I think Purple Kiss really shines in that department! Even Ponzona which didn’t register at all on my first listen gained slight momentum because of their execution on stage – It was a song carried by the girls 🤗
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Yeah, good song!
Its an old fashioned structured pop song with a contemporary flair. Old fashioned because it lands a hook and sticks with it with a bop along rhythm that doesn’t cease. Add the contemporary disco sound a la the Dua Lipa’s.
Best of all, the song composition itself does a lot of heavy lifting so it isn’t too demanding on all the others elements of a kpop song to overcompensate (the theme, the choreo, some spitfire rap or super high note, etc). The girls are freed up to add character to the song and not have to oversell something that was suboptimal.
They can do a straight ahead delivery and it comes off great!
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I didn’t like it when I first heard it. It felt kind of busy. Now listening to it, it can go on the Roller Rink playlist fine. It’s cute and less busy than I thought. I listened to the other tracks on the album, now those are solid – more like their last singles. Which i really, really liked.
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This is fun(ky), but a little unimpactful, we’ll see if I ever come back here.
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So fun! Funky zombies with aegyo. I like their voices and style and need to revisit them. And CyA is a little fluffy bunny yes he is. Time for me to make a halloween mv playlist.
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Love the song, but the MV looks cheap
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