Rookies AtHeart returned with a dull pre-release last month, making me hope they’d saved their best material for their album’s title track. Butterfly Doors offers a slightly different taste, but sadly I remain underwhelmed by the music.
This song marries several youthful elements (nursery rhyme melodies in the verses — icy, music box-esque synth) with a darker intensity. Its tempo varies widely, from languid, trap-infused verses to an effusive chorus. The K-Pop historian in me wonders if NMIXX’s recent hit Blue Valentine was on the mood board, as Butterfly Doors feels like an attempt to make an emotional mini-epic in a similar way. In this case, the track struggles to live up to that brief. None of its elements stand out as a real highlight. The brisk chorus comes closest, but even here I’m not getting much tension.
Butterfly Doors opts for familiar (ie: overused) phrasing during its skeletal verses, which drags down much of the song. I’d much prefer a fuller sound and rangier series of melodies. It’s hard to pull catharsis from overly flat songwriting and constrains the track’s attempt at an emotional wallop.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Â Production | 7 |
| Â Longevity | 8 |
| Â Bias | 7 |
| Â RATING | 7.5 |
Grade: C
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Except that it took the mood from Nmixx “Blue Valentine” and not all the musical goodies they packed into the music. To me this sounds more like Fifty-Fifty crossed with Illit / New Jeans sound.
It’s like, I mean, fine.
This reminds me – I haven’t looked at the Gaon Circle chart to see what Koreans are actually listening to these days. (… who the flip is Hanroro? Hanroro is doing better than most idols on this blog.) (Car, The Garden makes another appearance, haven’t seen them in ages.) (That’s the group’s name “Car, The Garden”.)
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the Hush, Little Baby in the verses really kills it for me, which sucks cause the chorus has some energy. this has been said a thousand times already but still its mind boggling to me that entire songs are being structured around nursery rhyme interpolations
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I really like the melody. The part around 2:20 also builds nicely and works well, though I think it would have made a stronger hook if they had brought it in earlier. Also, the rap part in the first verse is pretty rough. That tends to happen a lot with girl groups, which is unfortunate. There are definitely some weak points, but I like the flow of the melody overall, so I’d give it an 8.5/10.
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I like reading your blog because I find that we have opposite tastes. I’m a fan of a lot of the genres that tend to get grouped together as “beigepop” and I don’t have as much of a focus on vocal melody as you do. When we do find common ground it’s very interesting to me, and when we disagree seeing your reasons why is also interesting. Personally, I’ve very much enjoyed everything by AtHeart and am very taken by them, and that’s because they’re taking the softer subdued sound trend and pairing it with little interesting production choices, such as the acapella section at the start of Plot Twist, or the Bossa Nova-inspired synth and funk guitar changeup at the end here.
Overall:
Hooks: 7
Production: 9
Longevity: 8
Bias: 9
8.25
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This is a wild one because it builds to such a different song by the end. I don’t care for verse one, but everything that follows is really nice.
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Like it starts so cold and ends so warm.
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I can def see where this is Blue Valentine adjacent. Agree with Mymagoogle it sounds more Fifty Fifty than Nmixx because it lacks the adventurousness of BV.
I like the lullaby inspired instrumental hook the song is built around, and the outro is also quite nice. The rest is mostly in the “serviceable” area, but I think the difference between verse and chorus keeps it interesting.
I’ll give it 7,8,8,8 = 7.75
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It’s growing on me!
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I have it on repeat
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