Oh KARD. I really want to like you, but with every passing release, it just seems as though our musical preferences are destined to never meet. The scarcity of Co-ed groups within the industry really made them stand out, and to be honest I was rooting for them during their debut years. Their debut album, ‘Hola Hola’ was an excellent piece work, full of fantastic tropical house inspired pop songs, such as Oh NaNa, RUMOR, and the phenomenal Don’t Recall. A song I don’t think they have bettered yet. However, their foray into harder edged hype tracks has come across as more grating than exciting. Though RED MOON tries to fuse the new and old, it still comes across as more noise than anything.
Opening with one of the years most cringey lines, the track quickly devolves into its big house inspired soundscape that framed the majority of their last two tracks. The moombahton influence then makes an appearance, anchoring the rest of the first verse in its usual, uninspiring and murky fashion. There isn’t really any meat on songs bones. It’s the equivalent of blasting gibberish at full volume at the club. The entire vibe actually comes across as something Bollywood producers would bill as a party track. A noisy, blast of trend chasing music that shows glimpses of ear catching melodies, before collapsing into a heavily obnoxious centrepiece. The insistent horn blasts are particularly irritating and sabotage, an otherwise decent post chorus hook. RED MOON is also another song that adheres to the dreaded, momentum killing trap breakdown. However, there isn’t really momentum here to kill anyway.
Like most of the groups recent tracks, the girls vocals are where the song is at its best. Somin and Jiwoo provide a satisfying vocal performance during the tracks pre-chorus and surprisingly potent first hook. However, BM and Jseph spend most of the song basically just screaming. What happened to the inspired vocal work that characterised most of their early work? It really is upsetting to see. However, where RED MOON really falters is its sense of identity. Whereas Dumb Litty was an insanely memeable track, RED MOON feels too beholden to its own self seriousness and trends to really amount to much. Thats why I doubt that even for fans of the song, the tracks longevity on their playlists will be heavily limited. I can see how a track like this would be enjoyable in a club setting, but as a standard listening experience, it comes across as more a hissy fit, than engaging hype track.
Verses: 4
Chorus: 6
Production: 5
Performance: 6
Final Rating: 5.25/10
KBopped 
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