Song Review: Fifty Fifty – Starry Night

Few rookie groups have endured a story as dramatic as Fifty Fifty. Initially emerging from a fledgling agency, they quickly gained international notoriety and incredible momentum, only to have this success undercut by escalating lawsuits and contract terminations. The timeline is too complicated for me to recount here, but we’re left with an upcoming “comeback” from a group with almost completely new members. Starry Night acts as its pre-release.

This doesn’t only apply to K-pop, but I’ve noticed a worrying trend over the past year or so of increasingly vacuous pop music. I don’t mean “vacuous” in the way many pop-detractors do. I love nothing more that a meaningless bit of bubblegum fluff with a killer melody. I mean “vacuous” as in “pretty song, pretty sound, but nothing much going on under the hood.” It’s like a modern redux of watered down easy-listening. Starry Night fits within this realm, delivering a wisp of pop aftertaste without the substance that makes you feel satisfied.

The vocals are lovely, the production is slick and the melodies go pretty much where you’d expect them to. But without individual quirk, Starry Night could have just as easily been recorded by AI. It’s the latest in an increasing line of globally-minded K-pop singles that fill a couple minutes on a playlist but won’t be remembered in a year’s time. I’m more curious where Fifty Fifty go from here, because this song doesn’t hint at any specific vision.

Grade: C