The sweet voices of 5th Gen that brought us “Magnetic” and “Billyeoon Goyangi (Do the Dance)” have an announcement to make: they’re not cute anymore. Despite this, their latest single might just awaken the inner fairy in you.

“NOT CUTE ANYMORE” follows a chipper beat that gives very slight old Lily Allen vibes, while the girls softly utter lines like ‘I’ll take a laid-back jellyfish over a puppy‘ and ‘I’m not an alien / I’m just kind of easy-going‘. We find its relaxed dreaminess suits Moka and Wonhee’s voices the best, but ILLIT are so in tune with each other on the track that it’s intentionally hard to distinguish between voices. 

A highly liked comment on YouTube under its music video sums up our thoughts perfectly: “This song felt so soft just like cotton candy, but it’s so criminally short.”

The song is a gorgeously hazy little jingle that would inspire the most intense of workaholics to take a chill pill. 

Paired up on the single release is The Ting Tings interpolating “NOT ME”. It’s less sonically inspiring as “NOT CUTE ANYMORE”, and instead uses its two minutes to lay down some facts. If you’ve been pronouncing ILLIT’s name (ai-lit) wrong this whole time, now is your time to atone. 

We’re blessed with ILLIT’s own version of the famous they call me so-and-so and that’s not my name lines, swatting away the haters at the same time. Yunah’s verse adds fabulous depth: ‘It’s like they know me better than myself / Labelling, labelling all over my body / To the point where I can’t be seen / I want to peel these off, what the hell?‘

The song echoes all the frustrations of those who’ve ever been misunderstood, whilst serving as a throwback to a timeless song. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/6wKHLrZczZAhDVsMEG4JXt?

ILLIT are on Instagram. You can listen to “NOT CUTE ANYMORE” here.