Song Review:: MOMOLAND: RODEO

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  • Release date: 2025 September 08

  • Album tracklist: RODEO, RODEO - Instrumental

  • Album runtime: 6 minutes

 When I was a teenager, for some reason, I thought that every book I read was by an author who was dead. Going to the bookstore to get new books? Obviously a posthumous release. What snapped me out of it was finding out that Brandon Sanderson had a class he was teaching. What do you mean, he was (and still is, still publishing books at a rate many people can't read fast enough to keep up) alive? And now that you're confused about why I'm talking about a fantasy author, I apparently assume that all kpop groups, if I haven't seen them doing a release in the last year or know that they're on hiatus for military, are disbanded. So imagine my surprise when MOMOLAND drops a new single! Yay! Loving the runtime, and also, with a name like "Rodeo", I have expectations.

This was not what I was expecting. At all. Okay, readjustment of the song is in order. I was expecting country, and instead, I think I got funk. This is a surprise to me, but I will do my best to overlook it. This is a good, fun song. It's got shades of Rope It by Jin, which hurts me in some ways as someone who grew up listening to country music, and it does raise some questions I have, but it's still a fun song. However, I am pleased to note that I'm hearing a cowbell of all things, so I suppose I can take that as my token country element. I'm excited to see what the choreography looks like with this.

This is fascinating. Is this what Korean country sounds like? I may have discovered my new musical rabbit hole, but I'm going to put it off until this is finished. Vocally, we've got some good strong elements, well-supported and stable voices that don't sound like they're too strained, which is nice and not just because that means I may get some really nice choreo out of this song. And this song is catchy without being overly repetitive, with a lot of fun vocal layerings going on. I'm still not overly fond of it being titled "RODEO" but if I ignore that, this song is good and fun. I particularly like the "one step, two step, countdown" part.

I think the choreography was the most country part of this whole thing. And if they really wanted that, they should look into the line dances, because some of them are intricate. There's only really a touch of storyline, but there were a couple of really flirtatious expressions in there that caught my attention and made me smile, so I'll take it. I find it kind of funny, actually, that I just did a GH post on Hot Pink by EXID, and that song also spends a lot of time with a gas station as the featured location. Just a fun little moment for me. 



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