Moon Byul from MAMAMOO makes her return today as a solo artist after a year with her first studio album Starlit of Muse and the title track TOUCHIN&MOVIN. Ahead of the new single release, Moon Byul did pre-release the music video for Think About, which I have yet to review (and will get back to it at a later date). While she has not promoted as a solo artist in the last year since her 2022 Christmas promotions with PRESENT and CHEMISTRY, Moon Byul has been active as part of the MAMAMOO+ subunit alongside Solar.

Moon Byul delves right back into the funky and groovy with TOUCHIN&MOVIN. While the track is somewhat unexpected for MAMAMOO’s resident rapper (if that is where you are most familiar with Moon Byul), it isn’t anything foreign to Moon Byul – the solo artist, who has released something similar in the past in the form of LUNATIC (as an example – more upbeat than retro, but TOUCHIN&MOVIN is definitely a different sound that she continues on from the former release). Back to TOUCHIN&MOVIN, I really like the feel-good vibes and animated energy that the track effortlessly delivers in its instrumentation. Added to the funky guitar and groovy beats are brass and synths elements which does a whole lot, such as infusing even more energy, adds a cool edge and introduces punch into the song. Altogether, it was very hard not to feel all of the energy in its first release. I also like how Moon Byul doesn’t shy away from channeling the same energy through her vocals, which were quite consistent and grounded throughout TOUCHIN&MOVIN. It was definitely an engaging piece. The melodies had a nice ring and hook to them, which helps boost the memorable aspects of the song. There is only one thing I think could have potentially enhanced TOUCHIN&MOVIN and taken it to another level – a more substantial hook with more bite to it (to drive up the memorable factor even more).

If the brief was to keep it fun, light-hearted and simple, then this video takes the cake. Keeping to that is definitely on point for this song, and so it accompanies TOUCHIN&MOVIN well. For the entirety of the video, we see Moon Byul casually dancing to the song with her dancers, performing the track in some standard places like a restaurant and on a train. Personally, I wished there was a bit more to the video to make this aspect of the comeback more visually memorable.

Based on what I can see in the music video, the choreography looks fine. I do like how expressive the routine was. A more dynamic and longer instrumental break could have given Moon Byul and the dancers more material to work with in the routine, but what we got also looked quite good.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.2/10