Song Review:: Yuqi (i-dle): Motivation- M.O.

• Release date: 2025 September 16

• Album tracklist: M.O., Gone - Korean ver., Gone - Chinese ver.

• Album runtime: 9 minutes

 When I logged in to vote and get my login stuff, I saw that one of the potential wins on Show Champion this week is this song, so rather than wait to see, I'm going to get this review done preemptively because that's a lot easier for me when it comes time to do my weekly music show wins post. The other song, I've already done a review for. Have I fully learned this lesson? Absolutely not. But I am having a moment where I apparently am being preemptive? I'd be more preemptive if I'd been able to do this when this was released, but I will take what I can get.

I'm in love with this instrumental. Sold. Done. Ten seconds. We didn't lose that fun, old piano plinking even with the addition of the more hip-hop elements, and I'm gonna be honest, this feels a like something Destiny's Child would have done back in the 90s. But I genuinely love that beginning, and not because it reminds me of something out of Fable 2. The contrast of the two bits making up the instrumental makes the song so strong that even though most of the song is maintained at roughly the same energy level, because the old timey bits are woven in but not omnipresent, the textures are different. And we get an a Cappella section. Happiness. Also, it's got some Halloween vibes to hit, or at least that's where my association is with that.

I love the tone of her voice. We've got vibrato and low notes that I might not have to strain to hit. For those reasons alone, I'm very into this. But the play between the singing and the rapping is so skillfully blended together. It's a well-written song and Yuqi handles it masterfully. And her voice as well reminds me a bit of Destiny's Child. It's just all good, you know?

Could have done without the braids, but without some context, I'm not going to do too much more than be a little on edge. Very much an old-school vibes and visuals we've got going on, which is nice because at least the music video is vibrant and fully saturated with color. Also, there's fire and her visuals are on fire. Also, delightfully, I like that this comes in three different languages.