Let’s get the elephant out of the room first. Since I last wrote about MADEIN, member Gaeun withdrew from the group after alleging sexual harassment from the CEO of the group’s agency. Given 143 Entertainment’s messy reaction and the general repulsiveness of the allegations themselves, I understand why you might want to stop reading now without giving the music video any clicks.
As always, I try to focus on the music itself and will continue to do so with any notable K-pop act. Saturn acts as a pre-release for MADEIN’s comeback scheduled for next week. Pre-releases are all the rage at the moment, and offer artists two chances to catch the public’s attention. After all, one of 2024’s biggest songs (aespa’s Supernova) was technically a pre-release!
I don’t see Saturn having anything near Supernova success. It’s a striking ballad that makes good use of the members’ full vocal range, but it feels like an underdeveloped draft — almost like an intro track. The song plays around with tempo, seguing into an EDM breakdown for its chorus and heightening momentum for a skittery second verse. At its best, this dynamic approach results in material as enduring as Taeyeon’s excellent Time Lapse, but Saturn is too piecemeal to fully work. It ends in a cliffhanger, just when you’d expect a cathartic climax. I can’t help but wonder what the producers could have done with one extra minute.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Oh my… spot on about the ending. What a shame. I was finally ready for the song to explode into an emotional climax, but it never came.
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Well I like it. It feels very Dreamcatcher b-side to me, and since I get to hear a lot of Dreamcatcher from darling daughter I think she will like it too. What I like about it is that it is an honest vocal, and the chorus change is aurally interesting.
Does it end too abruptly? yes. But maybe it glides right into the next song when the full album comes out, as happens.
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that’s a good point about album placement. I was moderately enjoying the song up until the abrupt end. Makes it hard to add to a shuffle playlist though, even if the album flow works. 😦
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For context, this release has only one other actual song; it’s a single album. The other tracks are acapella & instrumentals of the two songs.
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It’s not interesting but I don’t think it was worthy of a video
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It’s not interesting but I don’t think it was worthy of a video
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Never even knew Madein existed (although I know Mashiro & Yeseo from Kep1er) until the turned up on my recommended list. What an interesting ballet and a missed opportunity to develop into an awesome track. The cliff-hanger ending at 2m22s was a total let down.
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