Prior to their full group debut today, Fanatics’ sub-unit Flavor delivered a quirky little synthpop song last November that hinted at interesting things to come. But as is the case so often with K-pop, the group has opted for a safer sound when it comes to their debut title track. Sunday is upbeat, bubblegum fare the likes of which we’ve heard countless times before.
This approach can work well if a song is driven by an addictive melody, but Sunday proves to be too repetitive to warrant repeat listens. Its chirpy, tropical-adjacent production will be instantly familiar, exciting in fits and starts but mostly generic to its core. I appreciate the surging energy of the pre-chorus, but any goodwill the song might be building is undone by a cloying instrumental drop that follows each chorus. “Kiss me like a Sunday” is an awkward English-language hook, but it’s better than the constant, mind-numbing repetition of “일요일” (Sunday) that follows. K-pop can often be inane in its own charming way. This, however, is just lazy songwriting.
On the plus side, Fanatics’ performance is refreshingly straightforward. Sunday eventually succumbs to K-pop’s ubiquitously over-caffeinated girl group chants during its bridge, but up until that point we get a sweet — not saccharine — delivery that compliments the song’s synth-fueled sound. I just wish the girls were given better material to work with. Sunday plays almost like a nursery rhyme, too reductive to compete with 2019’s more thrilling debuts.
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 6.75 |
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The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Basic kpop, also the song didn’t really have any energy.
I don’t know how the Korean market distinguishes this group from a couple dozen others just like them.
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I completely thought they were saying “you smell like a Sunday.”
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To be fair, that’s probably more believable than what they’re actually saying…
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It’s not like I had high expectations for a rather nugu production, but this is… notably not great? Aggressive mediocrity. The kind of boringness that punches you in the face. It doesn’t HAVE to be as good as “Milkshake” (which was, AHEM, one of the best of 2018) but like, there are literally no good things onto which I can cling when listening to this song.
P.S. How do you write 300 words every time an even slightly notable nugu does a trop bop debut? And you still come up with respectable subtle burns every time? I’m running out of burns? Maybe it’s leftover fatigue from an exceptionally dry July, but I’m super impressed????
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He has a gift! A gift!
(Pfft, see I can’t even write six words without repeating myself.)
I believe the answer is “practice, practice, practice”. In a previous response, Nick replied that he used to work in publishing where he got paid to write variations like this all day. But, shh, let’s wait and listen for how he varies his response to the same question ….
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