Battle of the B-Sides:: Purple Kiss: Love Is Dead

 Good news, everyone! I asked for some spooky songs in The Form, and I got a couple! You guys all rock! I mean it! Also, Purple Kiss are some of the queens of spooky, and I love that about them. I man, I just generally love them, so I'm excited that I got this one.

Love Is Dead is their fifth song from their fourth mini album, Geekyland. The number of cooks in the kitchen for this one is actually pretty small: two lyricists and two composers. First up, we have Kang Jiwon, who has done quite a few of Purple Kiss's songs, but also a few for MAMAMOO, TWICE, BEAST, and B.A.P (two notable ones are 1004 and One Shot). Next up for the solo composer, we have someone named Davve, who seems to have almost exclusively worked on Purple Kiss songs. Still, that's very cool. And last up, we have the solo lyricist, who is none other than Purple Kiss's own Yuki! Whoo!

This is such a good song. Thank you for introducing me to it. 

I recently described another, much more recent, song as being a total Buffy the Vampire Slayer song. But really, honestly and truly, what I need is for someone to do a fanvid of Buffy/Angel or Buffy/Spike with this as the background music. I'm trying to figure out who would be the better pairing. Alternatively, it would be funny to see a Spike/Drusilla fanvid set to this song. But I think there would be a certain amount of ironic literalism with either. 

Because vampire.

Although this really is just a good vampire song. Personally, I'm leaning a bit more towards a vampire as our POV speaker, the vixen, the hunter, the black widow. This also isn't the kind of vampire that necessarily feels bad about it. It's kind of an "Oh, well" kind of vibe. Consequences. You know how this goes. 

"Uh, my love is already dead/But what can I do? I'm not sad/Let's party, open a champagne/Cheers to our farewell" 

That rap bit by Yuki is delightful, and it's got a really good spot in the song, functioning as a bit of a punch in the middle of the sleek and sultry rest of the song. And this is a b-side. That's why this segment is named what it is. Sometimes you've got b-sides that decide they need more recognition and just hit hard.

But, genuinely, I am in love with this choreo (and yes, I agree with you, Submitter (I really need to come up with a nickname for y'all when you submit) that when they move as a pack at the end to rejoin Ireh, it's a stunningly powerful display). And you know what's so cool about it? It's member-made. That's so cool. 

The hand movements at "My love is dead". The inversion of the heart. Using the other members movements to highlight the one actively singing. The cool little wave at "in my head". 

And because this is a performance video, we don't get a lot of storyline. However, we still have a murder and a found footage section which just makes it kind of spooky. Like, this is great. It's gorgeous and clever and so well done.

And the costuming! They all look so good! It's a range of the elegant and the badass with some leaning more one way than the other. This won't be the first time and it won't be the last time I mention this, but their thighs look so solid and powerful, and I love that. The power! Give me more! They're beautiful. RBW knows how to pick them because their older sister group is also stunning.

Okay. Friends. I know this is seven minutes long, but this is literally them talking about the song and the choreography and what they wanted from it. How am I not supposed to include this? Also, their cheer is so cute, and I love it. I love everything about this. We get to hear their process. We get to hear synchronized foot stomps. Ironically, they literally said they didn't want to do horror for this one and it got suggested to me for a Halloween post (which is super late, sorry about that). But you know what? Buffy could be considered an action hero, and her show is definitely also horror. So. Why not both?

The cheers in this stage are so loud. There's a mostly stable camera version that I'm trying to decide if I want to include from this episode of Show Champion, but there's also a dance practice version. Oh, who am I kidding? We both know that I will take any opportunity to be all fluttery over a song when I can, especially for the b-sides. Also, there's a comment on here that I agree with. Their Killing Voice, had they done one, would absolutely have gone viral.

The cool thing about this is that you get the stage performance in full as though you were there. Which is kind of the point of live performances, in my opinion, so that you can see how all the pieces and parts move together as a whole, which you don't always get when you have the cameras cutting to give a medium or close shot to whichever member is currently making sounds through their mouth, which is a very long way of saying singing or rapping. Because either one is applicable in most instances.

From the tour last year (2024) that I saw. This wasn't my stop, but they won me over then. Thank you for the fancam, random stranger.

And last but not least, the dance practice. This choreography is incredible. Genuinely. From further away, you get to see the broader strokes of the dance so well, and the fact that they choreographed this themselves really does make it cooler. The shifts and reveals that the choreography gives us are so cool. I'm so impressed by them and there are so many people who are also delighted by how amazing this song is that I'm happy to be able to give it some recognition here.

Hope that was good, Submitter! Nope, that's not the right nickname. Whatever. 

I have no way of making sure you see this, but I hope you cross paths with it in the future.

Thanks for reading! Remember, if you have a song you'd like for me to cover like this, drop it either in the comments or in The Form!