Brand sponsorships are plentiful in K-pop, and every once and a while they result in an original song and music video. Such is the case with Hearts2Hearts’s team-up with Kia. The “moon” in Moonride refers to a new dark trim offered by the company and makes me expect an equally beguiling song.
Alas, this Moonride turns out to be another drive through K-pop trends that won’t die. Yes, this is officially the 2,764,283rd girl group track that borrows heavily from UK garage beats. The production pulls in lounge elements for good measure, crafting a relentlessly subdued track over which the girls deliver seesawing, sing-song melodies.
The highlight of Moonride is certainly its chorus, even if it sounds like many other SM girl group tracks of the past. I like the vocal layering in this segment. It adds character to an otherwise predictable hook. Unfortunately, this is immediately followed by an irritating “backseat of the car” repetition that makes the Kia tie-in painfully apparent. In the end, Moonride primarily becomes these two moments over and over (the verses are too forgettable to count), causing the song to quickly devolve into the commercial jingle it’s designed to be.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7 |
Grade: C-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
imo at least “backseat of the car” sound more natural in a typical pop song than “drink you heart out”
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Are those our only choices? haha
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I love it. The chorus is so damn sweet and catchy. Best commercial song since Zero. 8.5
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Decent but there are moments where the song hints at something mystical and dreamy like a Lovelyz song. Especially the bridge layering.
7.25(7,7,7,8)
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While CF songs occasionally can produce true magic – Yuri and Seohyun’s Secret come to mind – they truly are their own category and grading on that scale I quite like it. Definitely my favorite car related one after the song BTS did a few years ago for sure lol.
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I guess it did its job well for a CF song without overarchieving anything substantial. The song early moments had a dreamy vibe that make you dreaming a little nice getaway moonride trip then pulling you into reality with the repetitive hook about car seats. Yeah, I don’t think I will come back to hear this song again except when I have a plan to buy the product.
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UK garage beats have the potential to be grand and powerful, but they decided to take a step back to make it more subdued.
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It’s enjoyable but bland enough that a straight 7 seems true enough. The image is so odd though. I know it’s probably AI or whatever but it just looks like the KIA cars are ominously waiting in the back to run the girls over.
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boring at they can do better
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wtf? hearts2hearts mv with generative ai? seriously? it’s not like they can’t even afford actual vfx. lazy as fuck from SM entertainment, of course.
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