Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
LOONA‘s 500th sub-unit, LOONA YYXY, consists of members Yves, Chuu, Go Won, and Olivia Hye. Notably, their debut with “Love4eva” also has contributions from Grimes, though unless she worked on production, the hyped collab seems limited to the intro. Regardless, while the sound they delivered was surprising, the important thing is that the end product was quality.
Given that this was produced by E-Tribe, it’s impossible to avoid the comparisons to “Gee” and its derivative in “Very Very Very“. Hell, it’s like the intro was designed specifically to compete with the cringe of the intro to “Gee”. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, it also uses an excellent upbeat and bouncy sound as its foundation. There’s not much to complain about in this regard, as it keeps the effort fresh and lively throughout, powering it through the verses to the standout chorus.
While “Love4eva” is undeniably also derivative, what I enjoyed the most was it was given an actual chorus instead of just being a hook song, which must’ve been extremely tempting to do because I think that would’ve worked better with the general public. Instead, the chorus is nicely fleshed out with a definitive rhythm of its own, but still has that an addictive quality in the bright “love forever” to punctuate it. The vocals aren’t anything to write home about, but it doesn’t really matter in the face of the instrumental and execution.
Honestly, the sub-units of LOONA are getting confusing at this point and I’m here waiting for the group’s debut. Still, despite my grumpy complaints about the debut process, LOONA continue to pump out quality songs to keep me interested and “Love4eva” is no different. While it’s far more typical to K-pop than a lot of their best efforts to date, it’s also undoubtedly done well and puts enough of their own spin on a classic template to make it thoroughly worthwhile.
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