“SOS” feels like a strange but fitting title for this Fifty Fifty comeback (re-debut?). With controversy and calls for boycotts swirling around this new configuration, everyone involved — from past members to current members to agency underlings — likely have “SOS” swirling around their heads. I’m sure some will be upset that I’m writing about the song at all, but I’ll remind you that no one is forced to consume the group’s music. As with pre-release Starry Night, I’m unlikely to revisit it myself.
SOS is perfectly serviceable pop — dreamy and melodic and oh so careful to paint within the lines. Like it or not, we’re lodged in an easy-listening (dare I say adult contemporary?) phase of pop music and that vibe has hit K-pop’s girl groups especially hard this year. SOS bleeds into a dozen similar 2024 tracks, each one a soft haze of aural anesthesia. I feel my mind drift halfway through the song and I’m beginning to think this is by design. SOS isn’t trying to engage or provoke. It seeks to blend into a playlist of “songs I can listen to while I study/work/cook dinner/etc.” I respect the utility of music like this, but for me pop songs have never been a casual afterthought.
This approach to songwriting is also difficult to review. I mean, SOS is objectively pretty. It’s too restrained to make any big mistakes and the girls sound pleasant — if a bit bored. From a pure production standpoint, the music is successful. However, nothing here is begging for a repeat listen. I wouldn’t turn it off, but I certainly wouldn’t rush to turn it on either. That’s pretty much our streaming/playlist era in a nutshell. So with this in mind, I must give SOS the most boring, neutral rating I can.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.5 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
It feels like a b side. Connective tissue in an album. It’s still on brand for them but fifty fifty had stronger songs before and the members felt like they each had their own place in the group. I’m not giving up on them, but let’s get some music that at least let’s the girls showcase their voices more
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8/10(9,7,8,8) or 8.25/10(9,8,8,8) for me…Cute Song but not Title track material.
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A cute pleasant song that I’d play while studying. Although, like Gunther said, they had stronger songs before (like Tell Me), and besides, the girls also don’t have an Aran-esque vocalist (a shame her potential is ruined). But good luck to the girls, I hope they’re able to flourish.
7.75 (8, 8, 8, 7) for me.
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https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-09-07/entertainment/kpop/As-Fifty-Fifty-redebuts-former-members-prepare-for-debut-of-their-own/2129442
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This sounds like a great bside but when it’s a title track it would only be an average song.
Footnote : Aran probably can make this song sounds better with her unique vocal. No hate towards new girls but everyone almost sounds the same and I had a high expectation on Chanelle based on her hype from R U Next viewers, apparently she is just a mid vocalist
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The three former Fifty Fifty members — Saena, Sio and Aran — joined a new agency under IOK Company. IOK Company’s subsidiary Massive E&C signed a contract with the three members to make them debut as “a new global idol group” that will debut as early as the latter half of this year.
I can hardly wait!:)
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Yeah people hype up chanelle’s vocals like she’s a Taeyeon, eunji, or a Lina. She was one of the best on r u next but there wasn’t much competition. I still like her though, she’s confident in her vocals and she is still above average amongst this newest batch of idols
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None of the girls have vocals that standout, except maybe Keena. They all sound alike. They would’ve avoided all this comparison if they just debuted a new group.
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Anyone who misses the previous Fifty Fifty group, I came across this good news recently. They have new material coming soon: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-09-07/entertainment/kpop/As-Fifty-Fifty-redebuts-former-members-prepare-for-debut-of-their-own/2129442
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boring
7.5/10 for me
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Even just 10 years ago, comebacks still felt like an event (though better even back a few years)… title tracks went for broke, we at least got mini albums and, not so infrequently, full albums to expand on a group’s sound, concepts were dialed up to 11 and the visual elements sold a full package but weren’t necessary to still enjoy the song, and you never knew which group would drop a 9 or 10 song since so many were capable of it. I guess the point is to say K-Pop as a whole used to be so much more fun and barely required following a specific group to hear great Spotless. Now it feels like most groups are just aiming for a Spotify playlist or TikTok vitality and 90% of what’s released is a snooze fest, paint by numbers song, or so out of left field for attention that you wish you were living in the world of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Songs like this just encapsulate how “not me” this era has become (I honestly think I’d take the tropical house or EDM phases back instead 😹). I don’t listen to music as background noise… never really have. When I listen to music, it’s an active process and that means songs that grab your attention and don’t let you go. “Pleasant” shouldn’t be the best descriptor I can think of. Sorry for the rant… I’ll go sit in my old timer chair in the corner now. Though I do find some irony in the fact I could drop this rant under the majority of this year’s girl group output (and plenty of the boys too) and it would still fit. 😹😹😹
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I wanted to reply but I left a separate comment instead😭😂
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I’m guilty of the same plenty of times! 😹 No worries! 😺
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same here, I really liked the edm sounds of 2013-2017. Can we bring that back?
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^^^ This. Yes. Background music. It isn’t even upscale background music. Its another example of Musak for the contemporary age. Worse, the sound engineering is designed for either bluetooth earbuds or bluetooth speakers on low volume, and not much else. Practically the song is fine, just so blah.
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There definitely were a plenty of releases like Sos this year, although I feel like none of them except for Magnetic really made a “splash”, whether domestically or internationally🤔or I might just be wrong. But then Supernova as a maximalist track that it is made a lot of noise whole summer. For boygroups we saw different stuff, with Plot twist being a pretty…lively track to say the least lol. For these reasons, I feel like we saw the end of this trend really, maybe Sos is the last real try on it and we will be just getting some “side effect” releases in this trope. Also I strongly doubt that SM’s new girl group will do *anything* minimal like this, I heard they are supposed to resemble a group like 9 muses was…
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Interesting! If SM’s new girl group puts out tracks as strong as 9muses, I’ll be hooked! 😹 And I really hope you are right. Supernova being such a massive hit gives me hope, but the trickle down effect can sometimes take a while… and then it’s a toss up between whether acts try to copy it too exactly (*side eyeing all those BP soundalikes a few years back*) or take an approach unique to them and make it their own. I do think we have gotten some great songs this year (and the last 2 when the background TikTok music trend started creeping up), but they have been the outliers more than the norm. It’s a bit like whiplash!
The consistency of the pleasant but unremarkable and forgettable songs aggravates me, but when artists have bucked that trend, some very solid songs have come out of it, like you said (and quite a few bizarre ones too but I digress 😹). I do hope we get a return to more maximalist songs soon though, and since trends happen in cycles, it will probably happen. 🤞For me, K-Pop is at its best when it experiments and goes for broke, and Korea and Japan tend to be the biggest music markets that actually allow for songs like that to succeed.
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BF as themselves were fine for me, but yikes at BP soundalikes😬😂, and even though BP is much bigger, NCT had a ton of soundalikes as well unfortunately so for Aespa yeah….it’s likely gonna be another round of those next year. Let’s see what those muses will bring lol
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I’m so appreciative of this space. I was in the comment section of the music video and the way people react to any but undying praise is so disappointing
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They might as well not be reacting at all, to be honest. It’s all just repetitive groupthink in places like that. If I was an artist, none of that stuff would mean anything to me because it feels like a formality instead of honest feedback.
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The song does feel like a b side,personally,I like Gravity and Starry Night more,but it’s still on brand for fifty fifty… They’ll get even better with time.
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Chorus sounds like that “bad habits lead to you” song, the post-chorus sounds like “Cupid”.
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‘soft haze of aural anesthesia’ is a perfect description for this musical trend. I have always hated it, music that is essentially just a flat line, just vibes, just background noise.
Now that I have lots going on in my everyday life, I find myself strangely drawn to it. It is a comforting level of low stimulation to my mind. Like a warm, bland soup on a sick day, where strong flavours will just make you nauseous. It is just there, keeping the deafening silence at bay, but not adding to the overwhelm of thoughts and feelings that are already running through my mind. I wonder if this is something that others experience, too. Maybe it’s partly responsible for this trend.
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