When it comes to WJSN, the old adage “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” seems fitting. They and their musical cohorts (Lovelyz, Oh My Girl, etc.) are part of a bygone girl group era. During their heyday, they reliably released melodic pop music with a sense of sonic drama and fantastical imagery. I very much took them for granted. It’s been almost four years since WJSN’s last new track, but today they’ve returned to celebrate their tenth anniversary with Bloom Hour.
Frustratingly, Starship Entertainment has barely promoted this release and crowded it into a month where it must compete with the agency’s other girl groups, meaning Bloom Hour will likely fly under the radar. Anniversary songs aren’t always promoted well, especially if they’re some dreary “for the fans” ballad. Bloom Hour isn’t a ballad, though it does have its more pensive moments. But despite its sprightly energy, the song has a strong “this isn’t meant to be a title track” vibe. Those looking for a continuation of the group’s spacey sound (myself included) will likely be disappointed. Instead, Bloom Hour is a serviceable fan song, brisk and sentimental but ultimately pretty generic.
As far as this style of song is concerned, Bloom Hour reminds me of Kep1er’s awesome Shooting Star. This track isn’t nearly as effective, though. The production feels overly compressed and lacking in unique textures, while the melodies unfold in a predictable way that sacrifices potential drama. It’s not a bad effort by any means, but it will never be the first WJSN song I add to a playlist. If anything, it’s a good reminder to go back and give their excellent discography another spin.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
Grade: B-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
It’s serviceable, and also, the way the chorus sounds so muted pisses me off a bit to be honest. It had potential to do so much better alas.
7.75 (8, 7, 8, 8) for me
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I’m obviously happy to see WJSN active in any capacity after spending basically the better part of the last 4 years praying for a comeback, but seeing how pitiful this rollout has been may be just as bad as no comeback at all. The total lack of promotion, zero budget concept photos…it’s just particularly striking when this is coming two days after IVE’s big full album release. I saw earlier that on their livestream, the decoration included the album covers just printed out 💀 they couldn’t even get the actual albums to display
Anyways the song is cute and I’ll always take nostalgic synthpop over a ballad, but even so this song could have been much better (comparison to Shooting Star is apt, I would have loved if it was as full and dramatic as that song)
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very much not among their best but it’s serviceable and thankfully it’s not a ballad(!). I think I prefer the b-side Mirror though.
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It’s fine.
The re-appearance of high shrill notes which I forgot how much I did not miss.
This could be a poster child for what it sounds like when a song is overly compressed. Over EQ’s. Everything sounds at the same volume. I did a road trip with darling daughter this weekend with a stack of classical CD’s on the seat next to me, and my god the sound was the size of an ocean. This here, small pond.
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ngl when i heard it was an exy production i got nervous. as much as i love her pen, her songs have terrible mixing and the production itself sounds lackluster and compressed. you & i, yalla are probably the only exceptions though (done too a little bit, you can argue there’s a stylistic choice there). biggest crime is aura 😭 so yeah i’m not surprised these two songs sound like drafts… i feel like the song didn’t get good until the first prechorus. with some tweaks here and there, with their cosmic flair, this would be great! the melodies are already catchy.
did i expect a day6 song from them? Not really. do i think this could’ve been a zb1 farewell song? yeah lol.
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a bit rude from STARSHIP to release this right after 2 big budget IVE mvs… you can feel the breadcrumbs. I also miss this kind of band and atmosphere (did it die with MAGO?).
Will you review the Gaeul song, ODD?
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At most if he liked the song it *could* be on the THIS WEEK rundown under Notable B-Sides, idk re: standalone post.
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I enjoyed the song, though it could have been better. Still, this was worth the long wait.
Also, what are your thoughts on the b-side Mirror?
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