Song Review:: Secret Number: Starlight- Starlight

• Release date: 2023 August 24

• Album tracklist: Starlight, Crazy Love

• Album runtime: 7 minutes

I know literally nothing about this group other than they're a fourth gen girl group. That's it. I have a single song of theirs (it hilariously happens to be this one) in my Junk Drawer playlist, which is filled with songs I just haven't gotten around to listening to, so this will be a nice treat, and also my very first impression of the group. So let's get to it!

The song is plagued by much of the same trends that are still going on with girl groups, but this time with a space theme so the airy, floaty vibes actually make sense. One of the cool things about this song is the fact that it takes advantage of a dual speaker system to make the sound of the song bigger without adding anything or actually affecting the volume in anyway. Plus, the song has some very distinct science fiction warbling and warping, and the section where that becomes very blatant is also where the song energy shifts a little, which is a welcome change.

Soft, airy vocals. They actually sound good, though I'm very much not partial to this style, and I'd guess it's at least partly due to the rapping, which has very clear tones, and the fact that some of the vocalists both got to use their vibratos and also got to properly support their voices with their breath. The relatively high energy of the instrumentals help that as well, as it still brings a sense of urgency to the piece.

It's a very soft music video, a lot softer than I was expecting. In terms of genre, it's somewhere between slice of life and rom com. The flash of dimples one of them has is adorable. My favorite location that was filmed in was the park. The formations in the choreography are a little interesting because it seems like one of the members is always hidden during the chorus choreography. But over all, this is a very pleasant, pretty music video with minimal surprises.