As K-pop’s 2025 release schedule starts to slow ahead of the end-of-year festivals and award shows, Starship Entertainment is having a few of their artists release digital singles. This is a smart way to feed their fan base without needing to invest in larger projects during a time that’s already busy.
Monsta X have an increasingly global fan base and Baby Blue seems designed to appeal to international audiences. Not only is it recorded in English, but the song itself is a sleek synthpop number that won’t offend anyone. I’ll always love synthpop, but it feels like we’re past the tail end of its dominance as a leading pop trend — at least for now. These genres always cycle back around, but we’ve heard so many songs with Baby Blue‘s sound over the past few years that it takes a very special composition to stand out.
Baby Blue is pleasant, whooshing forward on a chugging beat supported by airy melodies and equally soft vocals. The song delivers a nice sense of heft during its chorus, but the arrangement sacrifices power in favor of moodiness, preventing Baby Blue from building toward anything truly memorable. Compare this to the masters of K-pop synths (ie: Sweetune) and you’ll immediately hear the difference. Baby Blue forgoes bombast and intricate layering for an easy, breezy toothlessness. It’s fine in the moment, but its lack of ambition will blunt its long term effect. The song simply needs to be roughed up a bit.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
a pleasant song that checks off all the right boxes and doesnt do much else
it sort of reminds me of that “i like the way you kiss me” song that went viral a year ago
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Not related but are you going to review the mv from girlset? Ik you reviewed when they were VCHA but idk if the rebrand fits the blog or not
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I’m not planning on reviewing any Girlset releases unless I feel like there’s an undeniable need to do so.
I’m not particularly interested in their sound and they’re not K-pop, so unless a song compels me in a certain way you probably won’t see them mentioned much on the blog. Even then, it would probably be in the monthly “global round-up” feature.
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I was over the synthwave wave before it even started.
That said, this one is a nice one. They clearly spent time and effort on crafting the break 2:13 to 2:36 and it shows.
It reminds me a bit of their “Newton” from many years ago but make it synthwave. Another easy breezy song that is easy to like.
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No one can quite scatch that kpop synth itch the way Ateez can for me (Take Me Home and Cyberpunk, Silverlight supremacy!) but I actually really enjoyed this too!
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