LOONA had great potential to be a powerful act in KPOP, but their company ultimately failed the group, with each member filing to terminate their contracts with Blockberry Creative by the end of last year. Throughout the first half of this year, the LOONA members departed from Blockberry Creative after winning their lawsuits against the company (and the company remained bitter to the very end, threatening lawsuits and a ban the members from promoting). While group promotions have been said to be on the cards by one company, the members went in separate directions. Luckily, Kim Lip, Jinsoul and Choerry remained together, signed with Modhaus, reunited with the creative director behind LOONA’s pre-debut and debut projects and revived their LOONA unit name ODD EYE CIRCLE with their comeback single Air Force One.

Apologies for the long introduction, but there was a lot to unpack there. But now, I turn my attention to Air Force One. The song didn’t do much for me at first. But per usual with me, multiple listens have helped boost the song in my books. If you remember their previous works, Girl Front and Sweet Crazy Love, the songs were quite synth-heavy. Air Force One follows a similar direction with its Jersey club sound. But it does feel different, gearing away the retro vibes that Girl Front is known for and towards a trendier and modern motif. The multiple listens given to the song since its release has helped me realize how catchy Air Force One is, especially when it comes to the “Dara Dara Dadada Dada Dada” lines in the chorus. The pairing of this line with the more prolific instrumentation (relative to the verses) makes for a strong and intriguing central piece. The lines that come after this main line don’t really follow through as well, but they do maintain the energy that the chorus of Air Force One entails. The melodies in the song, especially in the verses, were also quite memorable. However, for me, the weakest aspect of Air Force One was the vocals. Most of it is fine. But some of the vocals were drowned out by the loudness of the synth instrumentation and some of the autotune just hadn’t grown on me. I wished the execution here was a better, as that would have helped Air Force One become more appealing in the first instance. Overall, Air Force One is a great return to the industry for ODD EYE CIRCLE and the new chapter in Kim Lip, Jinsoul and Choerry’s journey in their music careers.

I am quite surprised by the amount of references to LOONA’s and Girl Front/Sweet Crazy Love music videos. You got the eye patches, the moon imagery, the undercover carpark set and the hanging laundry set. I am all for the return of what is called the LOONAverse. But I did like the newer elements, such as the sleek black suits and the super powers that the members now have. We also got a cameo from HeeJin in the music video, who also joined Modhaus soon after ODD EYE CIRCLE did. HaSeul also joined the company much later, but did so later on. Otherwise, I think she would have also made a cameo in this video. As for the events of the video, I am not entirely sure what is going on. But ODD EYE CIRCLE seemed to crash a high-end party, knight one of the party goers in front of HeeJin. The song also features messages of the group making next steps with no worries, which complements the scenes where the members are having fun driving around the city.

The choreography for this debut/comeback is quite good. Their moves were all very interesting, drawing on that aspect of the song quite strongly. The sharpness and synchronisation is a definitely highlight and the routine at the song’s main hook looks cool.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8/10