Someone on Purple Kiss’s team must really want to screw with this comeback’s search engine optimization, huh? Searching for memeM (맴맴) is bound to flood your screen with Purple Kiss memes instead of music. Knowing K-pop, maybe that’s the point! Last we heard from the ladies, they delivered a quirky horror concept. Zombie stood out as a fun, funky twist on current trends. memeM is a hard shift in a new (yet quite familiar) direction.
Oof. Double oof. Actually, let’s make that a triple oof. If this sound is for you, you’re in luck. You’ve been well-fed this past year! memeM has it all: clanging EDM beats, jackhammer synths, sing song melodies and a drop chorus that relies on “mem mem mem” as its central hook. In between, we get shots of vocal firepower that hint at the incredibly talented group Purple Kiss are. Unfortunately, memeM switches gears so often that it’s never able to fully harness its strengths. Even when we segue into a bombastic climax, the segment feels randomly grafted onto this Frankenstein of a song.
I can see what memeM is trying to do. There’s a long history of off-kilter arrangements in K-pop. But – and I’ll say this until I’m blue in the face – you must anchor tracks like this with at least one great hook. Otherwise, the bluster becomes the focus rather than a delivery method. For example, there’s not a ton of daylight between memeM and a track like 2NE1’s I Am The Best. But while the latter plays like a conveyor belt of hooks, too much of memeM is spent casting off forgettable affectations. It’s not focused. Its various elements often feel at war with each other. Purple Kiss deserve better than this.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
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F.Y.I. Those weren’t random punctuation marks (above). I had written out two paragraphs detailing my thoughts on the song. However, since my momma raised me to believe, “If you haven’t anything good to say, then…” something, something… “…yeah, mom, okay.”. So, I removed all the nasty boo boo words from those two paragraphs and left the the only part that wouldn’t make the mater furrow her brow at me.
P.S. You’re welcome; to all the TL;DR surfers.
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! 🙂
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Darling daughter plays the shit out of Zombie, almost every day.
This song will not join it.
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But Mooooooom.. ..please, please, please, let me get what I want!
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Honestky, the things that makes me absolutely hate this comeback are:
1. Purple Kiss HAD been over this. Ponzoña wasn’t bad, but it was in a similar direction to memeM on various aspects. But look: they GREW! They went to Zombie and they were supposed to go somewhere else from there, somewhere even better, not backtrack to something worse than their debut.
2. This was really not what the first trailer, the one that I assumed was going to map the future of the comeback, promised. I was expecting quirky witches going on fun shenanigans and bothering poor CyA a little further with their weird inhuman behavior; instead… we have this?
The song is pretty average. If I didn’t have high expectations for PurKi, I would probably listen to it if it ever came on shuffle. But I had, and they disappointed awfully. I’m seriously hoping this was a one time thing and that they stay in their funky fun lane in the future.
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Yeah.. ..I kinda shot myself in the foot by believing the teasers were alluding to something spectacular, so I feel your pain. You’d think I’d know better by now, but I’ve been following this group since before debut, so there was still some slack in the rope. Now there’s only enough rope for me to dangle from it like one of the “Hang in there!” kitties. …and my grip is slipping.
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I feel one of the problems Kpop agencies have is they don’t have anyone that just says “no”.
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I LOVE some of it. Otherwise, meh.
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My disappointment is immeasurable. At least Pretty Psycho is pretty good, so it’s not a total loss.
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i just enjoyed pretti-G comeback today, i may not be perfect but it put a smile on my face. girl groups still do sweet concepts
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Bless you, for alerting me to this drop! I got 30 seconds into “Let Me Out” and thought to myself, “Wow! They still make K-Pop songs in South Korea! Who knew?”
Extra internet points for you.
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Wow. This is like a pastiche of a million other gg songs (in addition to aespa and BP, I feel like I also hear Everglow?). Despite the RBW connection I don’t get the comparisons to No Diggity by Oneus…that’s probably my least-favorite Oneus title track but at least it has a melody. This feels like the songwriters threw a bunch of leftover stuff from the fridge into a blender and hoped for the best.
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Nick, did you seriously just give “memeM” a 6.75 rating?….wow….that’s pretty bad considering all the talent this group has….in contrast to most everyone else here, “memeM” may just become my favorite Kiss cut for now….also in contrast to the shots taken at this song by a lot of people here (which seem somewhat personal on a lot of them), i liked the majority of what they were trying to do with “memeM”….
yea, there are a few parts of the song that seems to rattle on, but for me, any and all of that is overcome by the vocals, especially Na and Swan’s powerful vocals and Yuki’s pinpoint raps….in all fairness to Purple Kiss, and any other kpop group trying to make their mark in this industry, there just isn’t a lot of ‘mew’ that can be created, in my opinion…
i’ve been a kpop fan since 2013, so i surely do not profess to know all there is to know about the industry or genre. yea, there are many groups that stick out and have become very successful due to their talent and being backed by a really good management agency, with great producers, but from what i have mostly witnessed in my years of being a fan, there just isn’t much else that can be done to be different and really stand out in this industry….kpop is gimmicky, full of retreaded songs, and overly saturated (way over-saturated) with hundreds of new groups trying to debut, and the major problem with a lot of that is these groups are debuting with an unknown, small, underfunded agency that will not have the ability to sustain the group, even if they show promise….
now granted, Purple Kiss is from an agency that has a lot of success in the kpop industry, but i just don’t think we should be ‘too hars’ when criticizing groups like Purple Kiss (and many other groups) because like i said, it does not seem like there is a lot of “new” to go around in this industry….Purple Kiss is a very talented group and i think “memeM” deserves more than a 6.75 rating….
just my thoughts….
t. gumbo
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I’ve been a fan of k-pop since 2010, and this most *certainly* deserves the rating it was given (and honestly, I would have given it less). There were times I almost reached to turn it off, but forced myself to continue through… the only song I’ve liked from this group so far has been “Zombie”, and even then I don’t go searching it out. I feel like this group doesn’t know who/what they want to be and that’s crippling them.
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i hear you and do not straight-out disagree with you, but i guess my rebuttal with your thoughts is that Purple Kiss (and so very many other kpop groups – male and female) have a hard time finding originality and identity due to the industry being way, way, way oversaturated….that’s a fact….yes, there are a few groups that stand out with either solidifying their nitch and not changing much (Dreamcatcher, Everglow, Itzy, Stray Kids, etc), and then there are a few that are really good at mixing things up and not worrying about an identity….groups like EXO, GIDLE, BIG Bang, Stay C, come to mind (and a few others)….
it sometimes seems like a group in the kpop industry can’t win for losing….if the female group does a cutesie concept, then people complain that there is already too much of that in kpop right now….if they try and go for the girl crush concept, they are most always met with the same response….mature concepf?….the netizens will shun that, and those who do like it will be labeled as pervs by most of the kpop industry….go bad azz concept (my favorite) and a group will hit or miss depending on how the kpop industry is feeling….
what i love about Purple Kiss is the different talents that they bring to the table….it’s up to RBW to capitalize on their talent, but as far as their identity, there are many kpop groups that do not specifically have ‘an identity are do fine by trying different concepts and songs, and i believe Purple Kiss has that ability to mix-it-up….personally, i would love to see them go bad azz because i think it would fit them very well….that concept would allow their overall talent to shine through and utilize the strong vocals of Na and Swan, and the pinpoint raps of Yuki, while also successfully blending in strong vocals from Dosie, Ireh, Jieun, and Chaein….
nonetheless, i respect your ratings and your thoughts and opinions….
t. gumbo
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I really agree that they deserve better than this with their potential. I loved Ponzoña, Zombie truly grew on me (most of the time I need to listen to a song several times to become obsessed), but I don’t even want to listen to memeM again to see if I might like it more, there was just nothing that interested me in it…
it makes me sad because I had been following them since pre-debut. I was hoping they’d keep with more ‘serious’ (for lack of a better word) songs like their first album to counter-balance the very girly, sing-songy trends in newer girl groups, but memeM doesn’t do it for me. I felt like they had a strong identity with their debut and they’re blending in more with what they do now.
I hope they get to showcase their talents more with their next comeback!
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Oddly enough, I liked this better than Zombie despite that one being the more marketable song. The more I listen to memeM the more infectious it is. The lyrics and story was handled superbly in the music. Its kind of meant to be a song that drills into your brain like a meme no matter if you absolutely hate it or love it. There was no inclusion of meaningless lyrics like a lot of songs do (even some purple kiss songs tbh).
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