+(KR)ystal Eyes is not some weirdly-structured math formula… it’s the second sub-unit from sprawling girl group tripleS! Their debut album (and delayed mv) were quietly released this week, heralded by the stylish Cherry Talk.
The TripleS rollout is giving me strong LOONA vibes, not only from its multiple sub-units but from the nature of the music itself. I’m sure Cherry Talk will receive plenty of plaudits online for its fashionable sound, but behind those moody synths, new jack swing flourishes and smooth vocals there’s not enough of a song for me to get excited.
Cherry Talk is catchy, for sure. Its simple, oft-repeated hook gets lodged in your memory right from the first listen. In a girl group landscape trending toward muted, mid-tempo fare like this, the song’s idiosyncratic features help it stand out. But, these features are largely relegated to the densely-packed instrumental, which pulls in many different elements to form a compelling sound collage. It’s all very “aesthetic,” as internet slang might say (which is also the name of the album, btw). A higher tempo and more robust melody would have elevated the track for me. Instead, Cherry Talk is a song I’ll admire without much desire to replay.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 8 |
Grade: B-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Agreed, there’s not much heft to this song. It’s like a wispy spirit that just hovers by and gone the next second. However, I think the real treasure lies in the b-sides, especially the trifecta of “Touch”, “Hide & Seek,” and “Deja Vu.”
– Touch is GFriend/Lovelyz/Loona1/3 galore with some new jack swing beats and a hint of S.E.S
– Hide & Seek is new jack swing overload with pretty melodies
– Deja Vu is washed-out retro with city pop sensibilities, and a heckton of beautiful melodies
The whole EP is 5/5, and true to the tripleS moniker, is S-tier. The only thing I don’t like about this is the seemingly continued glorification of the youth’s fixation to social media as seen from the MV.
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> The only thing I don’t like about this is the seemingly continued glorification of the youth’s fixation to social media as seen from the MV
I think this depends a bit on how you interpret it. The MV isn’t really explicit about this, and the lyrics (https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2023/05/04/kr-ystal-eyes-triples-cherry-talk/) initially seem slightly vague as well.
However, at least to me, even with how bright, upbeat and happy everything in the MV seems to be, it’s all very artificial and feels ironic. That would fit the whole “hyperpop” genre with a bright, cutesy aesthetic, but under the hood things aren’t that joyful.
In the MV, they seem the happiest when in their “perfect” social media world (represented by the set with those giant flowers), and not so content with the real world. See SeoYeon’s car scene, for example, she seems slightly annoyed by that young boy (maybe representing her brother?). But obviously, in social media, nothing is as perfect as it seems from the outside.
The emoji pills that they’re taking all the time are basically comparing social media with drugs, which surely aren’t healthy…
Then, they’re constantly interrupted by notifications, even through that buzzing sound in the song itself. Again, not very (digitally) healthy.
And lastly, the lyrics also contain some hints:
“Is This Love?” — how valuable is admiration on social media, really?
“You Know My Day Flies By, Right?” — this social media stuff surely eats away a lot of time.
That’s at least my personal view on it, and I may also be interpreting too much into it. I do agree, however, that most people might understand it as glorification. If my interpretation is indeed correct, they definitely didn’t make it too obvious.
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I think you already reviewed it as a buried treasure, but it looks like Purple Kiss’ Autopilot got its own MV today – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fkM8W3kTlI
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Disastrous song, ruined my day.
How can they follow up Rising and Generation with this?????
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It sounds better and perkier at 1.1x.
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Sounds we’re back to the 90s!
There’s nothing really special about the title. Same as their previous releases, excellent production, yet lacking that wow factor to stand out.
The album had a uniform sound overall, which sounded warm and nostalgic. Not an AOTY, but I can see myself looping this album.
Big shoutout to music production btw. Mastering and mixing of high quality. A rare occasion to hear such a clean ’90s’ release. Defintely interesting.
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Good song and great mini album , TripleS continues to delivergood things
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Easily the weakest TripleS song so far, but I love the production here, so colorful and vibrant.
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The pre-chorus is definitely the strongest portion of the song and I wish the chorus hook was more evocative of that or even just a little stronger to start with but as a song it’s cute enough? Not bad by any measure but not amazing either. I also wish it was the full 3 minutes of the MV but that’s trendy both in general right now and for this group in particular so I’m not all that surprised.
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i mean to be fair the guy who spearheaded loonas whole predebut rollout manages triples now soooo
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The song turned out to be something of a grower.
Also, it turns out that TripleS is being blocked from music shows now. Not sure why, but the ex-loona members JUST joined Mordhaus…
Also also! Nick! Infinite just launched new SNS accounts. IT’S HAPPENING!
https://twitter.com/IFNT_Official_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1654774251277234178%7Ctwgr%5E30454cde558ab7112af32db181a92b7c4a60c43d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F139hmak%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dtrue
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The reason why you feel the Loona vibes is because this group is managed by Jaden Jeong, the creator of Loona.
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Loved this, I hope to hear more quirky and densely produced kpop soon
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Even though it took a long while for this to fully grow on me (hence my comment on the 23rd despite this being released on the 5th) I thoroughly enjoyed this song, especially the instrumental. However, speaking of the instrumental, is too loud and kind of drowns out their voices a taaaaad bit
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I totally get where you’re coming from. I definitely find myself listening way more to the instrumental than the producers probably wanted me to. I tend to listen to a lot of music with no vocals including instrumental versions of kpop songs , so I think I’m conditioned to overlook things like that completely
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Also, I’m glad I’m not the only one who goes back to previous posts weeks later
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Same! I do it all the time, even for posts that are from years back 😅
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