Song Review:: ILLIT: Bubee {OST}

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  • Release date: 2026 April 13
  • Album tracklist: Bubee
  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

 I didn't do this when the original Japanese version dropped just because if I remember correctly, there were a lot of releases at that time. Not that there aren't a lot of releases now, but if I skip the song again, I'll feel bad because ILLIT deserves the attention as well.

Okay, we've got a skittering beat on this one, but crucially, it doesn't take up the entirety of the sonic landscape for the song. It's a really interesting choice, for reasons I'll talk about during the vocals, but there are actually quite a few different sections to the song, which makes me happy to have a good level of variety going on in here. We also get over three minutes of song, which means that there's room to have that much song. Thank goodness. It's very cute. 

The cuteness does extend to the vocals, and there are a couple of spots where you can hear the fact that this song started off life as a Japanese song because the vocal rhythms are very Japanese and not Korean. The skittering beat shows up mostly in a spot where the vocals get a little bit more floaty and dreamy, which is an interesting dissonance. I'm not sure how I feel about it. You'd think that the members would get to actually use a full voice, but they don't.

No music video, unfortunately.

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