Song Review:: TUIDE: TUNE & PLAY- SUN KISS

• Release date: 2026 August 03

• Album tracklist: ABD, SUN KISS, Echo, Flip-Flop Girl, GRLS

• Album runtime: 15 minutes

 I don't understand why HYBE didn't have this group debut at Pledis where HSS already is. Also, for all the news articles that mention him connected to After School, Seventeen, and TWS, I understand why you're not mentioning Pristin. They made a huge splash and are still angrily beloved, but they were short-lived. But NU'EST survived ten years and near disbandment just for y'all to erasure the impact they had? Really? I'm so tired of the NU'EST erasure. I actually accelerated my plan of when to post this because the backlog is large and in charge. But then I found out that this is almost a proper Pledis group and the company Pledis's first subsidiary after twenty years. The company has issues and I'm a little peeved over certain things that have happened recently. However. They are NU'EST's little sisters for all intents and purposes as far as I'm concerned. That being said, the cute little maknae is at a disappointing fifteen years old. So. As much as I want to immediately throw my support behind them and dig into all the songs, the group is on Underage Protocol. Such a shame.

This has a little bit of a tropical thump to it, which is good for a late summer debut. And with a runtime of almost three minutes, it's one of the few title tracks to come out of HYBE in recent years that's this long. We've got a few moments where we go a bit softer, which is a good bit of variation that is much needed in the song, but it never gets more energetic or varied in the other direction, which is a shame. We do get a dance break there at the end, which I really appreciate as a dance break enthusiast, although I'm a little sad we didn't go more EDM for that dance break. Sadness. I don't know how I feel about this as a debut track though. It doesn't feel particularly declarative or exclamatory, because even if a scent is soft and delicate, it can still have a lot of impact, you know? This one just feels a bit summery. 

I'm underwhelmed by their vocals, which is a disappointment considering the quality of vocals that have come out of Pledis since 2009, but I also really wish that they didn't debut a fifteen-year-old maknae so that I could have the time to adjust past my wish for another After School or Pristin. However, I think that despite the mildness of the vocals, there's a lot of potential here because even though the general vocals are soft and high without a display of big vocal prowess, they're well supported almost the entire time, which means the brief dip into rap doesn't feel out of place tonally. But while it's a very pleasant song, it's very generically girl group, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for a debut from a company with a long history of big vocals, it's both surprising and disappointing. Without being able to check though, I can't tell you if they just picked the wrong song for the title track. I hope that's the case. It's a decent song. I just don't think it makes for a good debut or title track.

Considering the song is called "Sun Kiss" I would have expected a lot more sun and a lot fewer clouds. Even the scene where there's sunlight literally sparkling on the waves, it's still cloudy feeling. I will say two things however. First, the credits transform the song, and I'm not talking about the fact that a random cat was included. The clips during the credits brighten up the song so much that that feels like the actual music video to match the song better. Second, at the very end, the one in pink at 3:09 looks so much like Joshua with long hair that I had to go back and stare at her.