Song Review: fromis_9 – White Memories

It’s about time for K-pop to start unveiling its special winter songs. We haven’t had too many yet this year. tripleS released a track video last week and Rainbow18 stealthily dropped an unpromoted, Sweetune-produced (!) carol that even passed me by. Now, fromis_9 have taken the baton with White Memories (하얀 그리움), their soundtrack to the holiday season.

When it comes to this kind of song, my preference generally leans toward the bright and buoyant. A nice, stark piano ballad can be welcome too, but an upbeat “deck the halls” moment with just a little camp usually gets the job done. White Memories fits this brief, adding plenty of candy floss production to its sweet, poppy melodies. K-pop’s girl groups don’t often sound like this anymore, and it’s a shame that it takes a Christmas release to pull out the melody and pile on the instrumental treats.

White Memories thrives on its sense of warm nostalgia. It doesn’t do anything different than you’d expect, but that’s the charm of tradition. In fact, I’d be remiss in not mentioning that this song is actually a remake of a 2001 track by singer/actor Kim Min Jong. You can hear that in the melodies, which have a broad, singalong quality that used to be very popular in that era of K-pop.

Grade: B-