Review

Song Review: Kiss Of Life – Shhh

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Kiss Of Life - ShhhWith so many pre-releases, it feels like Kiss Of Life have already debuted several times over. But Shhh (쉿) is the big one — the song they’ll be performing and promoting and ultimately be remembered for. As such, it falls somewhere toward the bottom half of their burgeoning discography.

It may have been naïve of me, but I really hoped Shhh would offer a taste of something new. Its teasers promised interesting sounds, and those appear occasionally throughout the track. But as with so many of their peers, Kiss Of Life opt for a chant-heavy performance style and a dreaded anti-drop during Shhh‘s chorus.

The song’s first verse filled me with hope. There are some nice spikes of vocal harmony that hint at the group’s potential. However, this approach remains limited throughout the rest of the track. Shhh‘s hook is yet another dull, spoken-word affair. The brass sample running underneath adds character, but a repetitive post-chorus proves off-putting. Overly plonky percussion doesn’t buoy the track’s chances. Natty, Belle and Julie‘s solos continue to reign supreme.

Hooks 7
 Production 8
 Longevity 8
 Bias 7
 RATING 7.5

Grade: C

22 thoughts on “Song Review: Kiss Of Life – Shhh”

  3. i like it! in the words of dr doofenshmirtz “if i had a nickel for every time this year a kpop gg came out w a my everything/dangerous woman era ariana reject…..id have 2 nickels. which isnt a lot but its weird that it happened twice”

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  4. I actually like this a lot.
    The anti-drop is pretty lame, but the verses are fun.
    Like Niko says, there’s some early Ariana in here, and I love love loved early Ariana Grande (pls give us Dangerous Woman part 2).

    There’s at least a melody to this, which is refreshing.

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  7. Ah, I want Hot Issue to stay. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a lot to set them apart from (and are engulfed by) their competition.

    KISS OF LIFE seems planned out well. They have a plan to make an internationally appealing group, executed member solos, have lore-connected stories, and scheduled the releases quite well to build anticipation.

    Also, the girls are debuting with a relatively darker take on teen issues. It’s quite rare to have things like this depicted in K-Pop. I also don’t know if people will think of them as Blackpink 2.0 due to similar member compositional strategy, but I feel KOL can prove themselves to be a superb girl group.

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    • About Shhh, though. I can see the comparisons to early Ariana Grande, but I feel it’s like a combination of it with a strong hint of Little Mix’s British flavor. I’m more amazed because it’s made by Korean producers instead of MNEK or LDN Noise.

      And taking about spoken word affairs, this one is slightly better than the average because of that choral backing vocals. And the beat is good, too. I’m still on the fence with how much I’d like it, so far it feels like something that ages faster with more listens, but who knows?.

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  9. After listening to this a few more times, I think that this song is actually close to what Viviz was going for on VarioUs. Specifically, this song reminds me a lot of Vanilla Sugar Killer

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  10. Didn’t like this the first time, nor the second or third. Wasn’t until a couple weeks later I bothered watching the entire MV and actually saw the after credits performance vid that the song sold it for me. (smart marketing now I think about it, to make people give the song another chance and absorb it with the performance if they didn’t click with the MV)

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