Song Review: ablume – Echo

The sprawling Fifty Fifty saga continues with two distinct acts. The re-formatted Fifty Fifty continue to promote with label Attrakt, most recently releasing title track Pookie. Meanwhile, the three former members who left the agency amidst legal issues have re-formed and re-debuted as ablume. To be completely honest, I’ve never cared about the music enough to form a strong opinion on all this controversy. To my very casual ears, it just sounds like we’ve now got two groups performing the same Fifty Fifty-esque sound.

Echo is hazy and understated — a breezy mid-tempo bop that isn’t miles away from the success ablume found with 2023’s Cupid. There’s a bit more guitar and a welcome key change at the song’s climax. A second verse switch-up also pulls them into new territory even as it struggles to fit nicely within the rest of the track. But overall, it’s clear what the producers were aiming for here. K-pop’s overall tone has become much drowsier over the past few years, but Echo sounds more like I’m listening to some twinkly bedroom pop from an indie band.

The song opens with an unnerving bed of laughter that stretches for an uncomfortable amount of time. From here, Echo‘s main touchstone is soft (veeeerrrrry soft) rock. The group’s harmonies are nice and add needed texture to the chorus, but with the vast majority of K-pop’s girl groups targeting a similar sound there’s nothing about this track that makes me excited to rush back for another play.

Grade: C+