Most of the recent news surrounding LOONA has been about its poor members falling ill or becoming injured on their world tour. At this point, the tour feels more like a survival game than a series of concerts! I hope the girls get the rest they deserve and have been able to enjoy their travels even with all the setbacks. Having seen them at this year’s KCON, I’m always surprised by the size and dedication of their fan base. They’ve clearly struck a chord with listeners.
Speaking of KCON, my favorite performance of theirs was the bouncy, endlessly melodic Voice. I’d love to hear the group tackle more songs in this style. When they’re in their sweet spot, LOONA really soar. I don’t buy the girl crush sound on them. It feels like something grafted onto their music for purely commercial pursuits. New Japanese single Luminous flirts with girl crush tropes, though it doesn’t go as far as… say… Paint The Town.
The song’s spoken word verses have a driving energy perfect for the catwalk. From here, the track pulls back to offer a vocal-driven pre-chorus. From arrangement to melody, this segment feels ultra-familiar to the point of becoming instantly forgettable. The commanding beat returns for the chorus, but the hook isn’t doing much for me. It’s not bad. It’s just not very interesting. Overall, Luminous feels like a safe dip into the Japanese market. While I didn’t find past J-pop tracks Hula Hoop and Starseed all that amazing either, both had quirkier touches that made them stand out.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
They have fallen so hard
LikeLike
This one left me totally disinterested. It sounded so damn generic and throwaway that on 1:30 I turned it off. Low 7’s for me.
Overall, this month of releases has been GIGAunderwhelming, to the point that 3 out of 4 songs which genuinely grabbed me are b-sides (Oneus’s Stupid Love, Blackpink’s Yeah Yeah Yeah and Hard to Love). The last one is Lee Changsub’s Surrender.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fear not! They’re returning this week…
LikeLike
well… its very bland as expected as of all japanese songs of the kpop industry.
LikeLike
the vocal processing. They recorded inside a can?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The instrumental is great but I don’t think the group’s performance was commanding enough. The chorus got really tired the last time through as well. All that said, I did really enjoy the mv, I thought the portrait orientation was cool and this song totally calls for them to strut around in nice fashion. Not gonna return to the song though
LikeLike
I just.. ..can’t.
*sad panda face x 11*
Maybe if they.. ..???.. ..nevermind.
P.S. Looks like the Chuu Chuu is finally leaving the station for good.
LikeLike
I noticed that also. 11 girls, no Chuu. Since she was successful in suing the company (allegedly-still haven’t seen concrete evidence about the suit-other than BBC shunning her) maybe Go Won, Vivi and JinSoul could sue for “non utilization.” Yeah, I went to the thesaurus for that one.
LikeLike
It’s so hard to be optimistic as an Orbit. Blockberry has whatever the opposite of the midas touch is seeing as everything they touch goes to shit. It’s gotten to the point where the members have openly stated that they don’t trust the company. Seeing them go through all of this honestly makes me want to support them even more, but for the life of me I just can’t bring myself to listen to all of this generic music. At this point, our only real hope is that some bored billionaire buys the company out of pity and fires every administrative member of the staff.
LikeLike
Other than Voice, Yves’ and Olivia’s solos, Loona pretty much peaked at Odd Eye Circle. That unit could have been a group in their own right, their output was so solid and it was a great mix of members.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really think they need to go back to the subunits. A full album with 3-4 songs from each.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d like too see this as well, as long as they stick to the original unit members. I’d wager that there’d be solos first as it’s cheaper, starting with Heejin then maybe Yves, then Olivia – I would have said Chuu first but she’s either working on it right now or barely even a member anymore.
LikeLike
Hula Hoop is such a fun song – it puts a spring in my step and a smile on my face when it comes on my running playlist.
I don’t have anything to say about this one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lord this song here is as bad as a blackpink shit.
Gotta listen to Kim Lip Eclipse to clean my ears
LikeLike
I completely missed that LOONA was having a Japanese comeback, I was convinced this was a contact lens advert all the way through to the end when I was shocked to not get a brand name at the end.
LikeLike
Returning to this after all the latest Loona news feels very bittersweet! I liked this fine enough, not as much as Hula Hoop which perfectly updated their debut era sound into J-pop, but as potentially the last song Loona releases under BBC (praying for the extremely unlikely case of another company taking them in!) it falls a litle flat. I appreciate the supermodel strut of the beat and the swords being unsheathed in the instrumentals are a really cool touch, but I wish they’d had a Butterfly/Voice to send us out of the Loonaverse with, or even something with the commanding energy and stunning bridge of So What. Loona CAN do girl crush concepts when the song is good! And while I like this, they’ve sounded more convincing on So What or even PTT or with something quirkier like Why Not
LikeLiked by 1 person