EDIT: Clearly, the original review below misunderstood this song as a b-side rather than the title track. One week later, Season Of Memories has been performed on music shows and has a music video (added below). My initial thoughts haven’t changed much. I think the song is perfectly fine but doesn’t give me the sense of emotional and cathartic heft the best GFriend songs do. While its Yoasobi-influenced instrumental is interesting, it’s also a bit thin and misses many of the musical hallmarks I was hoping for when the prospect of a GFriend reunion became more than just a pipe dream. Overall, I’ll happily add this to my collection but won’t likely play it very often. My rating stays the same for now.
I wouldn’t usually write a full song review for an unpromoted pre-release with no music video, but GFriend have recently been inaugurated into my “K-Pop A-Z” club. Over the past few months, I’ve been writing about every single song they’ve recorded (only a few more to go!) and commit to write about any song they may release in the future. That starts with Season Of Memories (우리의 다정한 계절 속에), a pre-release taster before their big reunion in about a week.
Every fiber of my being expected Season to be the requisite ballad countering what will likely be a more up-tempo title track, so when the song kicked off with sprightly guitar I found myself immediately surprised. More than current K-pop trends, the production echoes sounds currently popular in Japan. I guess this makes sense since GFriend’s music has always borrowed heavily from J-pop styles. The instrumental is swift but still a bit subdued, forgoing bombast for a nimble — often jazzy — approach. It befits the mature era the group finds themselves in now, even if it never seeks to recapture the glory of their most iconic material.
I have a feeling Season Of Memories will enjoy strong longevity, but after the first few listens I’m still craving the melodic magic GFriend built their discography on. Rather than blossom and soar, the melodies play things cool and aloof. The chorus comes closest to breaking free from the song’s constraints, and is most effective when the girls’ voices are layered together. That sense of overwhelming optimism is their strongest calling card and I’m hoping that’s the direction we’re heading in.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I would never have guessed this was the group that made Me Gustas Tu and Rough, but, that busy guitar drew me immediately. It almost sounds like a solo song rather than a girl group tune, but…. if I go with it, I could end up quite liking this. Time will tell.
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anyone getting racing into the night (yoasobi’s yoru ni kakeru) vibes from this?
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i feel the same 😂
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Nick, I think this is the title track – they’re just releasing the audio a week before they release the MV and the rest of the “””album””” next week – quotation marks on album because its just one other song….2 songs is ridiculous!
Anyways I’m just glad to have them back, we’ll see how this ages for me
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Oh…. you’re right. Why did I think we were getting a pre-release and a title track? Well, this is a disappointing turn of events 😦
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Don’t worry, the initial announcement seemed to imply that to me too, but then the timetable + tracklist that released yesterday confirmed that the “pre-release” is just the title track
wouldnt have been as disappointing if there was more of an album to look forwards to…
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If you tell me this is a pre-release, I would believe it because nothing from this song screams title track for me. Do I need to wait another 10 years for another comeback?
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It’s not bad, but for an anniversary reunion song, it sounds like nothing from Gfriend’s famous title track discography. I was expecting a song reminiscent of either Rough or Time For the Moon Night for their two “eras.” It’s closer to one of their Japanese releases, and even then, it’s really more of a B-side than a title track.
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i like this because it reminds of ‘racing into the night’ by yoasobi which is a very good song, but also in a way that listening to this only makes me want to listen to that song instead.
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unrelated, but will you be reviewing the new just b song?
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44 months of waiting to hear a Yoasobi song. This track suits newbie QWER much better than they do
From what they said here, this is the main track but it was only released on audio as a pre-release. In addition to being disappointing, this doesn’t make any sense at all, after all, wouldn’t it be easier to just launch on the 13th?
My rating is the same
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As many have pointed out here already, this is very Yoasobi, to the point that I could see this playing over almost any of the anime openings Yoasobi has done a song for. It sounds good, but it doesn’t really sound like GFriend to me.
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So many people have mentioned it I have to listen to yoasobi now
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apparently I had one of their songs downloaded lol. I see why they’ve brought up so much
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This was a strange choice for a title track. Wouldn’t people look at the success of the KARA and SNSD anniversaries and take notes. Give the fans what made them love you in first place, save the ballads and the “look at how we’ve changed/matured” tracks for the album. I don’t want gfriend to flop cause this isn’t even a bad song, but geez those producers are still alive
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It’s been a few days, so I had enough time to form my opinion. I admit I had fairly high expectations for this comeback, so it is not surprising that I’m not fully content. I definitely like the song and would (also) place it in the mid-to-high 8s. It’s fresh, has a funky melody, a great dynamic and ample high notes. Even with the Yoasobi similarity (great group btw) it feels like GFriend overall. It’s certainly a great song — but it isn’t outstanding. It isn’t like their incredible run that are the first few title tracks, it isn’t a 10 like Rough, Navillera, or Fingertip. Nor a magically beautiful Summer Rain, Sunrise, or Rainbow. I’m a huge fan of synths, and this song unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of those. So, let’s see how this song ages for me.
Maybe the yet-to-be-revealed second track on the album will surprise me, but I’m currently expecting it to be some kind of ballad. Which is fine, but not the main reason why I love GFriend. 😅
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Late to the party. It’s fine. Adding that there are parts of the chorus which have the flavor of Oh My Girl’s “Fifth Season” but without its immense surge.
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There wasn’t any things very emotional or cathartic about the song, but the end of the dance? That got me
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It’s not as grand as their best title tracks, but it still hits for me.
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It’s a shame that their “special” album only has two songs. At least I enjoyed both of them.
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Exactly as everyone else said, it only makes me want to listen to yoasobi after this.
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Well.
I’ve been holding off on listening to this until the full album came out.
It doesn’t sound like a GFRIEND song from any stage of their career.
Also, the line distribution sucks. Let Sowon sing!
The bridge into the final chorus is nice; Eunha sounds great there.
I would have loved some strings.
Overall, not a bad song at all, just not what we had hoped for.
Anyway, we’ll see how this grows and how much I like the B-side. This whole comeback was full of odd choices.
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Well, 4 months later and I like this song a lot. I think the original criticisms still stand but overall I think it’s a great song.
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