Song Review:: Hearts2Hearts: Lemon Tang- Lemon Tang

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  • Release date: 2026 June 22

  • Album tracklist: Lemon Tang, 15-LOVE, Baby Steps, heart emoji (♡), Secret Recipe, RUDE!

  • Album runtime: 17 minutes

 Underage Protocol is active because SM has an alarming habit of debuting actual full children. But the group is down to less than two years now before the maknae is eighteen. However, as a side note, I had one of my teacher friends show either RUDE! or FOCUS to her students and her students loved it and thought it was really cool that one of them was fourteen, which made me raise my eyebrows and shake my head, but they're like ten. Fourteen is cool and old when you're ten, even if she may have been fifteen when whichever song it was came out. I'm not enthused about the runtime, but it could be worse. The title track is a little too short for my liking, but it could be a lot worse. Could be worse.

The slightly off-key whistling at the beginning is a bold choice and one that I happen to think is quite charming. The piano immediately following it made me smile. And then the rest of the instrumental satisfyingly matched up to the beginning of the song, so the introduction wasn't wildly out of left field. The amount of variation in that instrumental is impressive, including the fire truck sirens. This song is big, vibrant energy with a lot of colors. If the music video isn't as vibrant as God of Music by Seventeen, I may cry in disappointment from such a wasted opportunity. It looks like it should be. Fingers crossed. 

It's worth repeating again but I love the off-pitch whistling at the beginning. I'm reminded so much of Red Flavor, which is one of the most summer songs to ever summer, so I'm happy that the group is living up their older sisters' legacy. Vocally, it's satisfyingly bright and well-supported, although the bright color that I'm getting from it is not lemon yellow as I would have expected, because it's kind of giving me the green of new shoots. Which is a little odd, but it's fine. I'll roll with it. At least it's a bright color to match everything else.

I am so happy about the amount of color in this music video. It's adorable and vibrant and there's a storyline. I am good to go. And then she falls on her face. I giggled so hard. That made it turn from a meet-cute into a meet-adorable.



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