Song Review:: AtHeart: Butterfly Doors

• Release date: 2026 March 11

• Album tracklist: Butterfly Doors

• Album runtime: 3 minutes

 I did actually want to do this one. It's been staring at me for a while and I remember being curious about this group, though prior to going back over my review for their debut song, I didn't remember why I was curious. But I checked to see if I'd mentioned Underage Protocol or not, and I did, so while the youngest member is sixteen now, she was not at debut, so I have to wait until next year when she's eighteen. Still, I'm not writing the group off as one I won't listen to; one song is not enough for me to do that, and I'm glad this release bothered me enough to remind myself that I thought there was potential even if they need to have longer songs, which is just an issue across the board I will continue to call out. This one is better. It's close to three minutes.

Okay, I'm intrigued by this intro (haunted music box vibes) and then the skittering beat that gets added on top of the very high piano. Then we get some thumping that gives the song some much-needed weight with all the floating that's going on elsewhere. Oh, I like this one. The progression through the song is good, even if it doesn't go quite as dramatic as I like, and the repetition is actually fairly low, even though it's not particularly complex. I'm intrigued. I may add this to my playlist for artists I cannot listen to because of U.P., but want to eventually add to my other playlists I listen to. And there's a dance break.

I like that there are stretches of a cappella or near a cappella. They have a very soft, floaty, fluttery quality to the vocals for this song, which calls back some of the bigger groups of early third gen K-Pop, but I'm most delighted by the (presumably) whole group singing there towards the end. That screams second gen I'm so glad that that sounds like a thing that is coming back. Again, I think the group has a problem with auto-tune covering up, removing, or drowning out the vibratos that we get a hint of, which isn't a them problem and more of a production problem. But I also kind of like this. I'm living on potential at this point, but they're less than a year old and I'm willing to wait for them to get more experience, more confidence, and more trust from the producers to see if I'm correct and there is some vibrato waiting from this group. 

This reminds me weirdly of Phantom of the Opera, and parts of this music video were almost certainly filmed in LA. But! We have a storyline, and it's a fascinating one. I really like this music video. If they weren't on U.P., I'd probably watch it occasionally. And the choreography? That's where this group really stands out.