Over the past few years, Purple Kiss have flirted with quite a number of genres. Their singles run tends to bounce between negative and positive reviews on this blog. I prefer their more melodic tracks, especially given the strength of their vocalists. New single On My Bike offers a bit of everything, melding their various musical personas together.
Right off the bat, On My Bike‘s production unveils a dark, Halloween-esque appeal. This may be their most dramatic arrangement yet, backed by heavy guitar distortion and a near apocalyptic soundscape. It’s very spooky at times, down to the lurching synth that forms its backbone. The verses have an effective stomp, though I would have loved hearing more fullness in the percussion. I’m quite tired of tinny, trap-influenced beats.
Fortunately, On My Bike fleshes out nicely during its chorus. Guitar is the star of the show here, adding great texture that plays well against Purple Kiss’s vocals. The melody isn’t doing much for me on its own, but works when propped up by the bombast of the instrumental. In the end, I can’t tell if I enjoy this because the song is actually great or because we’re so starved for dynamic girl group material during these easy-listening times. I’ll take it either way.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Fun Fact: This is the same producer as Itzy’s Untouchable!!
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God i love the guitar here and that eerie female cry in the back. Also, Sweet Nightmare seems to be Autopilot’s long lost sibling haha
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It sounds as if Dreamcatcher were to try their hand at a more conventional kpop girl group song. I don’t think it wholly works, but its still better than most.
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I was afraid it was gonna be a racy track because of the title but now I have a new favorite purple kiss track
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A possible return to form? Pretty good on the first two listens!
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I feel similarly — I’m enjoying the production but I wish it was supporting a stronger melody. Especially in the chorus, it feels so… disjointed? It’s made up of several phrases that sound entirely unrelated to each other. There’s no unifying melodic contour or rhythmic idea and it jumps between registers too often. I felt similarly about Nerdy to a lesser extent.
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This is a song that I love in theory – the guitar, the bike concept, the great vocal moments… but something about this isn’ t clicking with me. I’m sad about it! Still glad we have a girl group going all out though.
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This is a fun song!
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