Song Review:: AtHeart: Plot Twist- Plot Twist {Debut}

• Release date: 2025 August 13

• Album tracklist: Plot Twist, Push Back, Dot Dot Dot..., Knew Me, Good Girl (AtHeart)

• Album runtime: 12 minutes

 Another rookie group debuting with a song titled "Plot Twist." I'm amused and curious, especially since this one is a girl group debuting under Katie Kang's company, who has been a debuting powerhouse in K-Pop with most of the SM groups starting from the beloved Girls' Generation and SHINee. The expectations are high for this one because as I have said repeatedly, those SM groups have some phenomenally talented and well-trained idols. This is also her first group on her own with her own company, so there is a dose of skepticism. Expectations are quite high. And speaking of Girl's Generation, Sooyoung was in the music video teaser, and I couldn't be happier about the support from older idols. You could almost describe AtHeart as step-sisters to Girls' Generation, which means we get a similar sort of repeat with Seventeen and TWS, the other group that recently-ish debuted with a song called "Plot Twist", though theirs doesn't use capitalization. Unfortunately I can't listen to them because they have a fifteen-year-old. She does turn sixteen this year, though, so if you have different rules than me, there's that. And the runtime is rather appalling.

Oh, I don't like that introduction. The a capella part is fine, but what immediately follows makes my ears uncomfortable. The space warbling at that pitch is a little too loud and too fast for how slow the vocals are. It's the science fiction synth that works really well with fast or intense songs. But it almost felt like the vocals and the instrumental were on two different time signatures or BPMs. It's really weird. And while I applaud the effort and the experimental nature of the song, especially with this being a rookie girl group, a demographic that I don't think is particularly experimental as a general rule, I'm not entirely sure that it works all that well. But even though I'm not overly fond of the instrumentals, especially with the way that they seem a bit too loud for the vocals. I kind of wish the group wasn't on my Underage Protocol list because, even though the songs are so short, I'd be interested to hear the others on the mini album to get a better sense of the group and to see this is a fluke with their sound. Ah, well. 

Vocally, I'm reminded a lot of groups like f(x), but not as second gen, if that makes sense. Which should since they're ostensibly a fifth gen group. The worst part is that I can hear some vibrato from this group, but I'm teased with it. The auto-tune helps erase it, which I'm not overly pleased with because when it's less affected, there's actually quite a lot of potential there and I'd be interested to see what the song sounds like without it. Still, it does make the vocals match the science fiction warbling going on in the instrumentals. But really, the song is just too short to get too much of a grip with the vocals. 

That is a weird music video and I love it. I'm down with the song because of this music video. It kind of reminds me a little of Sucker Punch, the movie that I don't think was particularly well received but I really like watching it before I watch Crimson Peak (I don't know why). It's got that dreaminess to it that makes it a little bit fairytale-esque, but it's bordering on a nightmare. In other words, it feels like there's something wrong with it that I can't put my finger on, like when you turn onto a street and there's technically nothing out of the ordinary but you're just suddenly on edge. Also, the bits of choreography we see definitely had my attention because jumping while singing? Yes, please. I like this.