Song Review:: SWEET:CH: Sweet Day- Candy House {Debut}

• Release date: 2025 April 20

• Album tracklist: Candy House, Sunday to Monday

• Album runtime: 6 minutes

 I had one heck of a time trying to find this group, so here's the Spotify link, the Apple Music link, the YouTube Music link, and the Melon link, because I'm an overachiever, but you all should be covered with one of them being useable for you if you like this song. Also, I really like how Melon is set up and I'm sad now. It even literally lists what the title track is. That's all I want from a music streaming service. That's it. Anyway, if you're looking to look up the group on your own, I had to search with SW:C to find them. So I'm not actually sure what the actual name of the group is (there seems to be some confusion between the streaming services, YouTube, and nearly every place I looked to see for more information on them in my search. But because of that search, I am happy to already report that the maknae turns 23 this year, which makes me a happy camper. Their YouTube channel mentions that they're a project group, but I can't find any evidence of where or why or how. The members are split fairly evenly between Korean and Japanese members. So, overall, other than a comment I ran into on Melon, I have no idea what to expect from this and am rather confused. But I'm fine with that as long as I can figure it out over the course of the song. And because this is a single with only a pair of songs, I will also listen to Sunday to Monday as there is a very limited sample size for getting a feel for this group.

Sold. Done. Next.

Oh, you want more information? Picky.

So our debut song hearkens back to what I think was a sweet spot in K-Pop history, 2015-2016 for boy group debuts, but what I think is so interesting is that technically, I don't think the instrumentals are all that bright, sweet, and energetic. Instead, what we get is a contrast between the vocals and the instrumentals that grounds the vocals and brightens the instrumentals. The bell at the beginning is a lot that you'd find on a door, which thematically is really appropriate considering the title of the song. We also get quite a lot of that in the second song on the single, Sunday to Monday, but while the two songs carry something of a mature softness to them, they don't feel the same. Which is good. It doesn't show off a range of styles, but it does show variation within a specific wheelhouse.

So far, I'm fully on board with this group, and it leaves me feeling genuinely excited for them to get their footing and to eventually begin venturing into a variety of genres. Still, for now, they're establishing their sound and I'm looking forward to it. I love the adlibs. The first time I listened to it, I'd slotted this song into the pretty, but less exciting vocally, and then the group decides to let some adlibs going. That's excellent. It's also not often that I like the debut song more than the b-sides, or in this case singularly on a single. Also, I know I like to harp about vibrato, but I couldn't be happier to see some of them either let it be visible throughout the song rather than delegate it to something later, or they actualy bust it out for the big music.

We get a performance video for their debut song, and I really like the choreography here. Also, at the end, we get their names attached to them, which is so incredibly helpful.