Song Review:: Moonbyul (MAMAMOO): laundri- Goodbyes and Sad Eyes

• Release date: 2025 August 19

• Album tracklist: Cotton, Goodbyes and Sad Eyes, Da Capo, Chocolate Tea, DRIP, Over You, ICY BBY, Take-off

• Album runtime: 3 minutes

 We have a four and a half minute song, everyone! Alert! This is not a drill! The title track is even three-and-a-half minutes long. I love her just a little bit more for restoring my faith in K-Pop song lengths, because we are over a three minute average. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Y'all, she has been so active as a soloist the last little bit. I am waiting somewhat impatiently for the next MAMAMOO comeback, but Moonbyul is doing well to be active while I and their MOOMOOS wait. 

Twenty seconds was all I needed. Done. Sold. This actually reminds me a lot of the rock-country music I grew up. It also feels pretty 00s alt-rock, so it feels really familiar. The only way that this could feel more targeted directly for me to drag me back to my childhood is if this had been a proper country song. It doesn't go hard the entire time, which I really appreciate. We've got soft dips that let the song breathe. We've got fiercer guitar and drums that propel the song forward. It's a perfectly designed song to support the vocals and lend energy without overpowering them, and it's balanced well enough so that the instrumentals do not overpower the vocals in that way either.

There's nothing that Moonbyul can't do, I swear. I mean, she dips her toe into rap in this song a little, but you'd never know if this was the first song you'd heard by her that her primary job in MAMAMOO is rapper. She works with the genre of this song like she was born to do it, and I think Moonbyul may actually be a rocker at heart. I almost went into a run-on sentence in my enthusiasm over her voice just there. Whoops. Also, I listened to the rest of the album, because of course I did I love her voice, and the entire thing is no skip. This may be a surprise to you given that I didn't particularly like ICY BBY when it released, but in the context of the album, it's basically perfect. On its own, I stand by what I said, but within the album? Yeah. That's a good song. And it's very well placed.

The music video adds almost half a minute to the song, putting it just under four minutes. It's like she knows.

The music video is partially animated, both in that parts of it are animated and then there are animated bits during the live-action bits. Which I love. Obviously. But also, how is she this gorgeous? The music video feels like it's in that nebulous stage of youth where you're still feeling like a teenager, but you're technically an adult and doing things on your own now. One part rebellious, one part curious, one part determined. Also, whoever her stylist is needs a raise. Pop Punk Princess over here. I'm also struggling to use normal words because my brain has reverted to teenager and it's just supplying Millennial slang instead of helpful, more professional words. So in translating all of that, she did very well. It looks very good. I'm a teeny bit in love, and it's fine.