A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve.
A2O Soul’s debut EP is uniformly great, so I could have easily written about any of its b-sides. The chugging, anthemic nature of While We’re Young is the most “me” song of the three, but it’s more fun to subvert expectations and write about a ballad. I have a (deserved) reputation of disinterest in ballads, but that’s just because so many of them in K-pop play things safe. Even more than a dance track, it’s vital for a good ballad to bring the drama and narrative heft for me to enjoy it.
Moonlight Shadow is a classic Yoo Young-Jin ballad, building to multiple vocal crescendos that paint a compelling story that keeps you engaged. When looking at current K-pop trends, I’m noticing a return to bombastic instrumentals but haven’t yet seen the return of equally bombastic vocal performances. A2O Soul take the opposite approach, melding bravura vocal runs to more muted production. When they’re able to unite these vocals with large-scale instrumentals, we’re going to have something very special on our hands.
For now, Moonlight Shadow plays like all of Soul’s music so far — deceptively simple at first but more addicting and affecting each time you hear it. I love the timeless approach to this song. It feels like the end credits to a sci-fi movie or anime in the 80s and in this way reminds me of EXO’s excellent Cosmic Railway from back in 2018. Now that we have this, we need Soul’s version of Gravity asap!
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
Grade: B
I personally like Very First Love the most, but I found myself liking this song more than I thought after the highlight medley was released. Also, Nick, what do you think of the short dance break they added to Dancing in the Dark for performances? I thought it was very MJ “Thriller”-esque. I think an official video is going to be released Monday.
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I don’t watch my weekly music show until Sunday, so I’ll see it then. I’m excited!
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When you watch it, I recommend the MusicCore stage, since it’s has better & clearer audio. I would also recommend watching the full-cam video, because the formations are very crafted.
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Woah, I’m honestly so surprised! This was also my favorite track on the EP reminding me of the good ol’ days of Kpop. Plus it almost made me shed tears of joy 🥹
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not what I would’ve picked (While We’re Young truther here) but this is a great closer to an amazing debut album. it is very 80s down. a few days before this was released I came across an Instagram Reel of “R&B singers riffing in the song’s intro” and that’s all I could think about when I listen to this lol.
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Appreciate the EP sticking to the same sound throughout the entire tracklist. This is definitely a highlight, there’s a very MJ-esque tasteful approach to the whole song and I love that! Funny enough, The Weeknd also released his own 80s synthpop ballad recently so that’s a pretty cool coincidence.
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