Kiss Of Life have been teasing a comeback for some time now, no doubt hoping to recapture the buzz of their early work before a large chunk of the K-pop fandom turned on them. With new single Who Is She, they’re smart to return to some of the 2000s sounds that first brought them to prominence.

This could easily be a 2020s-updated Pussycat Dolls song and that’s a big compliment coming from me. Who Is She is not nearly as catchy as a song like this should be, but I enjoy its strutting beat and focus on vocal melody during many portions of the track. There’s a fun, loose energy to the performance that fits the group well and should be their focus going forward.

With that said, Who Is She‘s chorus feels unnecessarily underwhelming. The blasé nature of this centerpiece ultimately places the track closer to Tate McRae than Pussycat Dolls and makes it come across as nostalgia-bait rather than a proper reinvention of older sounds. I hear this a lot from modern pop music producers who haven’t yet realized that a great melody is the most timeless ingredient you can add to a song. Who Is She succeeds in spite of this because its references are so great, but the song could have broken past pastiche to become something even greater.

Grade: B-