I haven’t been shy in voicing my displeasure/disinterest with K-pop’s current trend of beige, easy-listening girl group fare. The sound has become ubiquitous over the past year, dulling the excitement of many new groups. But within this sonic realm, ILLIT’s megahit Magnetic stood out as a solid example of the genre. Now they’re back with its follow-up: the very tame Cherish (My Love).
Rather than echo Magnetic‘s chirpy hook, Cherish reminds me much more of ILLIT’s peers Fifty Fifty. It has the same soft, inconsequential energy. The song finds one airy hook and repeats it often without any attempt to modulate toward a compelling finale. There’s no sense of growth throughout Cherish and this flatline disengages the listener. ILLIT don’t possess a ton of character in their voices (or maybe they’re just not given the chance to show it off?), making them feel like cyphers rather than protagonists in their own music.
Cherish‘s catchiness lies in its accessibility. The song is extremely easy to sing along with, requiring no virtuosic range or power to pull off. This makes it quite relatable, and maybe that’s the appeal of music like this. However, I approach pop music from the opposite perspective. I’m not looking for some cute little earworm I can hum to myself while doing the dishes. I want the full musical course — something so striking and impressive it pulls me into another universe entirely. With this in mind, Cherish just feels flimsy and redundant — a song that would pass by on the radio without leaving any indelible mark.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Hybe’s production team is slowly deteriorating and it’s worrisome. Bang PD is credited on most of the tracks in the album (I believe Slow Rabbit too) and they still keep justifying max 2 minute tracks with no time for the song to blossom. This song is fine and from the previews, I genuinely believed I’d be liking this more than magnetic but the production is so wack. Tick-Tack is such a cool sound but the song ends so fast I don’t know why.
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Cute, but meh
7.5 (8, 8, 7, 7) for me.
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This is so cute and a great follow up to magnetic😍
Just wish the beat went a little harder😌
8.25/10💕
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The teeth motif of the video is kinda creepy
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okay the teeth imagery makes a lot of sense one of the members thought of the concept but pretty much yunah has her wisdom tooth removed and wisdom teeth is Korean is sa-rang-nee, which translates to “love teeth”. The reason for this is that by the time your wisdom teeth emerge, you are likely to have experienced your first crush or your first love.
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Yep and even the Korean title for f(x)’s Rum Pum Pum Pum is “cheot sarangni” (첫 사랑니) or “first wisdom tooth” and the lyrics too are related to love.
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The more you know! Thank you for the explanation. I still think the video is mildly horrifying but at least it’s cute in concept.
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I’m glad I learned something there. It’s make a little more sense now but I’m still a bit creeped out
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It’s always a shame when groups that have interesting concepts and visuals (like ILLIT) don’t have equally interesting music.
I was waiting for this and aespa to save the month but uh… While aespa was good, I think it’s safe to say at this point that October was very disappointing.
Also. “Something so striking and impressive it pulls me into another universe entirely” is such a good way to describe it. It’s like something I felt but couldn’t put into words :’)
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I also thought aespa Whiplash was meh, but fortunately we had an ITZY comeback, and Gold album is wonderful beginning to end.
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This song would fit on fifty fifty’s recent release. The only thing is fifty fifty get to stretch their vocals more on their songs. It’s hard to get excited for a song like this, but also hard to be mad at it
I think not having interesting vocals is just a modern kpop girl group problem, not an illit problem. Vocals in general have taken a backseat
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it’s cute, but not for the playlist
7.5/10 for me (8, 8, 7, 7)
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agree on everything. it’s SO muted. I enjoyed their debut album and have been waiting for their comeback but I’m underwhelmed.
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Magnetic’s vocal direction is too juvenile-sounding for me. This one, in comparison, is way more likeable on the first listen.
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Decent enough. Low 7s probably.
Was hoping for a worthwhile follow up to their first banger EP.
The World, Lucky Girl Syndrome and Magnetic were excellent songs.
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I really enjoyed it. It was cute simple and very refreshing I think this would’ve been a perfect release for Valentine’s Day and I’m happy they didn’t do a magnetic rehash but still kept there dream concept and aesthetic
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If this swerved into a much more interesting genre and a concept tweak, I could see this working. I genuinely thought I’ll Like You was the title track until I saw teasers for Cherish. As for the EPs, best tracks in my eyes are again I’ll Like You and Tick-Tack. Pimple is more on the softer rock Bside end while IYKYK is so poorly timed considering if you want this track, XG already did it down to the title with better execution.
I’ll give them this, there is a clear direction. The problem is the creative variety is that narrow that I can acknowledge that my favorites from this EP are just some degrees of separation from Magnetic. Like with the concept and sounds I got from the highlight medley, you can go down the route of inspirations from several artists, I immediately thought of Seranji Poji, Perfume (slightly), stuff from the likes of VibRibbon or Pop’n Music. There are territories that haven’t been ventured in a long time by this industry, and it’s HYBE so you are not gonna get that type of curiosity from them.
6.5 (8, 6, 7, 5).
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It’ s fine, I guess. Too melancholy for me. As someone who has experienced many tooth-related procedures and still has tooth-themed nightmares occasionally, I could not watch this video. Yikes! ;;-;;
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Like, it’s a cute and juvenile song but forgettable like a lot of easy-listening songs that have come out. Magnetic was much more memorable.
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I am starting to be worried about BTS comeback, because honestly, Hybe’s production is feeling pretty meh these days. Not bad, more like kinda just there.
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It would be nice if ILLIT made a song that’s 3 minutes long or more.
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It’s very similar to Wonder Girls’ “Nobody”.
I think it’s fine, but yeah just easy listening. A killer chorus would not be amiss here.
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9 out of 10 dentist would recommend ILLIT.
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thing is the rest of the mini is much more sonically interesting than the tt suggests (namely tick tack and iykyk) but would it seriously kill h*be to add an extra minute to each song i mean shit even magnetic had a bridge….
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This direction was what I was expecting honestly. And given the girls’ age at least the narrative fits. But that’s no excuse for providing a basic ass song. But given how little interested I was in magnetic when it dropped but grew to appreciate its kid like charm, who knows maybe I’ll eventually like it.
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Nothing to bite on (pun note intended). Not the vocals, not the production, no the melodies, and the mv made me uncomfortable 10/10 would not play again
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The first scene of the MV – putting bubble gum on the mirror – surely a dig at Min Hee-jin and NewJeans, right? And I don’t want to go near it, but come on, just look at that bubble gum on the mirror! I really think HYBE is scum at this point toxic and misogynistic, I hope NewJeans and Min Hee-jin can start afresh somewhere else.
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I do like the song, but to be honestly, knowing how toxic Hybe is to women, I’m seriously worried about Illit.
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I have the same question, why not start somewhere afresh, I mean even without the name they are still popular enough to grab people’s attention.
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I think they’re under contract, and would have to pay a *huge* sum to get out of it. I read an article recently saying Kpop singers and groups should form a union, maybe that’s the answer.
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Is it just you or there are a bunch of people on twitter/reddit who think that bubble gum on the mirror is HYBE’s way of throwing dig at NJ and MHJ ?😅
And if there are other people as well then clearly people are taking this ongoing feud to some next level…
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I don’t know if others have noticed it too. But also, I was trying to imply it earlier without have to say it – the look and shape of the bubble gum is quite sexual in nature, and I know that was no accident. It’s very creepy, if you ask me.
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I just wanted to add, I’m not a prude, of course as a symbol it’s perfectly justified in art and film works. But due to the context – HYBE’s toxic misogyny towards teenage girls and a powerful female artist (Min Hee-jin), it comes off as being rather weird and inappropriate.
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nah what the fluff
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WHAATTTTT……
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This had a melancholy nature to it which I liked but too short and very one note. Tick-Tack was more sonically interesting but again, cut short before it really began.
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Its cute and fun but it isn’t anything you’d remember which is the problem. I can’t imagine anyone turning it off but I also can’t imagine you’d think to it on.
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boring AF
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I really dislike reviews like this, because it exposes the reviewer as a rank amateur with nothing conquential to say, even more inconsquential than the energy they claim the song to lack. This reviewer must be young, on a meager payroll, and clearly has no clue what they are talking about whatsoever in regards to music. First of all 90% of the song and video is comprised of complex western pop references. This alone is an astonishing feat given it is produced by Koreans who have no major ties culturally to the West aside from TV and Christianity. The title Cherish is borrowed from of course, Madonna’s Cherish, and the hook is directly lifted from David Bowie’s “Changes”, perhaps the greatest rock songwriter that ever lived. It would be very hard to believe this song was not toplined by a westerner and then translated various verse segments into Korean. I would argue if Bowie were alive he would be working with some obscure K POP star due to his nature of venturing into all kinds of new genre world music. In fact, his producer Nile Rodgers already has (Le Sserafim).
This is extremely perfect well crafted pop music. While the reviewer is correct in pointing out that it does not hit a crescendo climax, the song topic neither warrants nor demands a climax because the melody and words are “reflective” in nature, and thus does not need one. Perhaps the writer does not understand what it means to be a reflective person?
Reviews should not be written by people who have no clue about songwriting or production and get paid to find ways to create negative reviews, which do not have any logical merit. Even more bizarre is that the reviewer claims they are not interested in an earworm, but that is the entire point of a chorus, one which is practically impossible to pull off, even after writing 100 songs.
As for production, it fits the song exactly, and is restrained which is the mark of a master producer. What a stupid comment, really. It is like saying half of the Beatles songs which put them on the map and altered the course of musical history of the 20th century don’t have sophisticated production because they are simple tracks, or because Ringo is not Neal Peart, or because they are not Sgt. Peppers. Simple does not mean easy and never has.
There are deep western references in this video that flies over the head of most viewers, such as the excaliber sword, most of which people in Korea have never even heard about. The musical references are complex and largely late American 70s pop to 80s MTV generation. One must have a very deep comprehensive knowledge of music to pull these rabbits out of a hat.
As for the comment ” I’m not looking for some cute little earworm I can hum to myself while doing the dishes. I want the full musical course” the writer completely proves the point; he or she simply does not even understand the song or the point of the song and is just inventing ways to poo-poo probably the best pop song Illit has released thus far. Perhaps the writer should stop listening to pop music and pull out old Bob Dylan records? Or maybe if that’s too old, stick to Fun.
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FR this right here!!!!
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