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| Photo by the Author |
Halloween came early again as Purple Kiss recently unveiled their most recent comeback last February 15, 2023, with their lead track Sweet Juice from their fifth EP Cabin Fever. With a hypnotizingly haunting beat and a music video filled to the brim with elements of classical horror, most notably Kubrick’s The Shining, let us explore this elegantly creepy comeback.
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| Photo from RBW Ent. |
Sweet Juice is a hauntingly beautiful song with an orchestral feeling, complemented by the members’ soulful, mesmerizing vocals. The production of the track is unique by itself, given how it has no peaks or valleys, only having a steady pace of the song. The transitions throughout the song are smooth, but not in a way that you’ll get lost on which part of the song you’re in.
Rather, it’s smooth as it flows naturally from one section to another. Not to mention how ethereal the voices of the members are as they go into falsettos and showcase their vocal prowess throughout the song.
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| GIF from RBW Ent. |
Right off the bat, Sweet Juice starts off strong with heavy string instrumentation, accompanied by a delicate piano, and paired with an erratic twitching choreography from the music video.
This doesn’t seem off-brand for Purple Kiss given how they’ve dabbled with darker concepts such as Ponzoña and camp horror in Zombie. Nevertheless, it seems as though the six-piece group is continuing their concept of being witches who’ve lived quite a life.
The music video takes place at the Insolito Hotel—run by the witches to accommodate their own kind. However, trouble ensues as a mysterious woman adorned in all-black books stay in their odd hotel. Slowly, each member is haunted and terrorized by apparitions and poltergeists inside their very own establishment.
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| GIF from RBW Ent. |
One of the members at the start, Na Goeun, gets locked inside the room that the mysterious woman booked her stay in. Although the group is confused by the sequence of events that take place within the Insolito Hotel, it seems that there is much more to the story than we think.
In the first verse of the song all the way to the pre-chorus, this is what the lyrics state:
Madness in me that was sleeping
Time to wake up
Ah, I need fresh air right now
Come closer, will whisper
You want some Sweet Juice?
With these in mind, it seems that the Purple Kiss members aren’t as innocent as they would appear. This is even more apparent in their previous release, Nerdy, in which they are a bunch of misfits that fool around and control people inside the broadcasting station (albeit with good intentions). Now, these lyrics seem to be telling us that there is something sleeping inside them, the madness that is dormant within them, which they want to awaken, presumably through this Sweet Juice.
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| GIF from RBW Ent. |
This is also highlighted further when later in the music video, they pick up a phone that asks them the question if they really wanted the sweet juice, to which they proudly replied with a yes, and comply with the unidentified voice’s command to run.
However, not running away from the madness happening within the establishment, but deeper into it as if that was their goal all along; to call upon a black-adorned woman, to experience the nightmarish scenes that terrorized them, all so that they can finally get what they wanted.
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| Photo from RBW Ent. and Warner Bros |
Another thing worth noting is that the word, Rilas is common throughout the music video. This is most likely a reference to Kubrick’s The Shining, where the word "Redrum" spells "Murder" backward. The same idea applies to "Rilas” as when reversed, it says "Salir" which means to leave or to get out.
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| Photo from RBW Ent. and Warner Bros. |
This could be implying that the mysterious voice wants Purple Kiss to run away from her, and not towards her. But, the witches are indeed curious beings, so they eventually end up in the place where they wanted to be, which was the snowy lands at the end. Again, this could also be another The Shining reference, given the snowy setting.
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| GIF from RBW Ent. |
In one of the dancing sequences, there is a set of outfits that the members wear that can be reminiscent of a certain doll from a horror movie that rose to fame with her campiness. Speaking of, yet another The Shining reference is also present in at least two scenes where there were two versions of the same member, Chaein, which is in reference to the twins standing ominously at the end of the hall.
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| Photo from RBW Ent. and Warner Bros. |
Going back to the actual song, not much happens musically. However, the narrative within the lyrics is definitely intriguing and is giving us a look at what is actually happening to the members, beyond what we can see from the music video. It’s almost as if they are hiding this message of something sinister, too sinister, in fact, to share with you, not unless you look between the lines.
It also helps that the music video accompanies the storyline, although a more vague version of what is actually happening with the members, the mysterious woman in black, and the overall narrative of where this witch concept of Purple Kiss is going.
The song and music video are a delight to experience. Though there are increasing numbers of groups that dabble with darker concepts, this surprisingly lore-heavy group of witches is one you shouldn’t pass by.
Catch more of their releases on their official YouTube channel and Spotify.
