Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
It’s been a year since LOONA have made a Korean comeback (they did drop Japanese singles in September), but despite rumors surrounding their company and what not, they’ve continued to grow and they had a strong showing on Queendom 2 that set them up brilliantly for this comeback. More relevantly, their single “Flip That” seemed like it was going to put their music back in their generally brilliant pre-2020 wheelhouse, and it did exactly that until it didn’t.
I found the verses of “Flip That” extremely promising, mixing the brighter almost tropical sound with some modernization in terms of stronger percussion hits, and the pre-chorus sets them up well for a soaring chorus to bring it all together … and it just doesn’t ever happen. Instead, it seems like their producer opted to put things in cruise control, and thus it doesn’t have the necessary impact nor anything to latch onto melodically that brings the whole thing together. That mimics a K-pop trend, and groups are doing fine by going in this direction, so apparently I’m in the minority in this preference of having catchy, multi-faceted choruses with notable vocals. Ah well, so be it.
