Rocket Punch was formed by Woolim Entertainment (which also created INFINITE, Lovelyz, Golden Child, and Epik High) in 2019, with six members: Yeonhee, Suyun, Yunkyoung, Sohee, Dahyun, and Juri, the last of which left the group in May of 2024. Four other members have since left Woolim but it’s unclear where exactly that leaves the group.

Here are my credentials: a mixed bag. I know more about Rocket Punch than I’ve known about other ones I’ve covered recently like NiZiU or GHOST9—I’ve heard a decent amount of singles and a couple b-sides—but can’t quite call myself even a casual fan. Funnily enough, I keep getting them confused with Cherry Bullet, and I have no idea why. Maybe it’s the similar member number, and their careers being the same span of time? Either way, as always, I’m excited to learn more. Let’s get into it!

EP #1: Pink Punch

I’ve heard the titular hook of Bim Bam Bum before but beyond that, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Its verses are light and sparkling, and have this twinkling effect to their instrumental that’s surprisingly catchy. But then it feels like the first chorus comes a bit out of nowhere, especially because it doesn’t have the same pre-chorus couching it that the later two do. It’s kind of a strange little song, and that includes the MV, but I’m not mad at it. I think it’s alright and I’m interested to see where they go from here.

From the EP, I enjoyed the rock edge in Lucid Dream, the laid back poppy beat of Love Is Over (which I could swear I’ve heard somewhere before) and the springy piano and delightfully upbeat vocals in Do Something (my hidden gem). Also, I was pleasantly surprised that the mini-album had an intro. With the groups I’ve seen so far, intros are more common for groups with “serious”concepts like Dreamcatcher, so it’s nice to see it here.

EP #2: Red Punch

Bouncy’s opening sentence of “I don’t need fake guy but awesome boy don’t stop, so can you take my heart like a bouncy ball” is certainly…a sentence. Made of words. Despite being a native English speaker, I had to replay it a couple times to make sure I heard correctly. And that’s kind of a good summary of the rest of the song too. Bouncy toes a lot of lines simultaneously; it goes between encouragingly peppy and too overstimulating, between keeping you invested with a strange instrumental and just making you confused, between its chorus-first opening immediately drawing you in or just knocking you off course right away.. It’s a lot Even after around four listens (including my watch of the MV), I’m still not sure how I feel.

And speaking of the MV, while I have my gripes, I can’t deny that it matches the song’s frenetic energy very well; every cut is clean and the choreo is also a great fit. So kudos for that, I suppose.

From the EP, I enjoyed the percussive build up of So Solo, the soothing instrumental of Lilac, and the effervescent, bubbly pop of Girl Friend (my hidden gem). I also really liked the intro, even more than the first EP’s.

EP #3: Blue Punch

I have some mixed feelings about the single Juicy, to be honest with you. It’s definitely not as throw-everything-at-the-wall as Bouncy or as not-quite-there as Bim Bam Bum, so that’s an improvement, but there’s something about that chorus that turns me off. I think it’s that it feels like a bit of a regression, excessively juvenile where previous songs were just run-of-the-mill kpop. I really like the backing vocals and the emphasis they put on the girls’ voices, which sound extra good here, and the pre-choruses led by who I’m at least 85% certain is Suyun. But I can’t shake my discomfort at the over-aegyo, no matter my exposure to it, so I’m afraid this is a hard no from me.

From the EP, I enjoyed the confident, punchy beat of The The (no I didn’t misspell it that’s the title) and the tropical-pop Twinkle Star. But my hidden gem was easily Summer Punch. Despite the name being nothing that unique, the song itself more than makes up for it; it’s peppy and summery without delving too far into aegyo, grounded with a great acoustic guitar and solid electro beat. The vocals are center stage again and it just has this great feeling of fun that gets me smiling every time I hear it.

Single #1: Ring Ring

Ring Ring (thankfully for me) goes in the opposite direction of Juicy, paring back Rocket Punch’s sometimes over-the-top sound for a synthy sound feels like the kind of song that would play when you’re reminiscing about your life on a long drive home. The vocals themselves are a bit more overly bubbly than would lend themselves to that, so I confess I prefer the idea of the track to the execution. That being said, I really do love that instrumental hook. It reminds me a lot of the band The Midnight. It grew on me the longer it played, especially paired with the vintage influences throughout the MV, which is definitely my favorite of theirs.

From the single, I enjoyed seeing a more vulnerable side of them in Want U Bad, complete with the return of excellent vocals.

EP #4: Yellow Punch

Chiquita was actually the first song of Rocket Punch’s that I ever heard, and all things considered, it’s probably the best intro to them that you could ask for. It takes the issues I’ve had with some of their songs in the past and embraces them, somehow making a much stronger song in the process. Does it make any sense? I don’t know. Does “Wanna be Chiquita, so shout up, I like things now” make sense to you? Do I still love it? Oh, absolutely. It makes me smile every time. It has that drive that’s missing from a lot of songs like it, and sometimes that makes all the difference. I’m not saying it’s perfect, of course, but it shows the kind of group Rocket Punch has the potential to be.

From the EP, I enjoyed the minimalist groove of Red Balloon, the solid pop beat of Louder, and of course the synthy rush of In My World (my hidden gem). The intro was also good.

Single #2: Flash

Flash falls into this strange category of feeling both very much like a Rocket Punch song and…not? It’s clearly pop but also clearly subdued, and not in a way that feels intentional in the way of Ring Ring. It has this interesting instrumental I’m not entirely sure if I like, its chorus has a bit of an anti-drop that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I could also do without the vaguely repetitive “lights, signal, action” spoken word hook. I kind of don’t know how to feel about it, but I’d probably put it in the middle of their releases; not quite them at their best, but not their worst either.

From the single, I enjoyed the true magical girl energy of Moon Prism.

Single #3: Boom

Boom is a bit like Flash, in that it’s bright and outwardly very poppy in the way that Rocket Punch is wedded to. Like Bouncy, it tends to smack you over the head with its sound, which isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s less disorientating, so I’ll take it. I liked the build-up of the pre-chorus, but my thoughts were fairly mixed on the chorus. It’s another case of liking a lot of the ideas behind it but not being a fan of the execution. As it’s likely this is Rocket Punch’s last comeback (at least for the foreseeable future) I wish they had a better send-off.

From the single, I enjoyed the acoustic guitar driven Alive.

Verdict: TL;DR

I’m glad I did this. I knew next-to-nothing about Rocket Punch before this deep dive, and I hope I can say that’s not true anymore. As per usual, I went looking for interviews and the like and while I didn’t exactly find those, I watched Suyun and Juri’s “Informal Interview” with YTN Star and their appearances on Awesome World talking about differences between Korea, Japan, and countries around the world.

My Top 5 songs were Chiquita, Summer Punch, Alive, Ring Ring, and Do Something, with Girl Friend as an honorable mention. Rocket Punch gets an 8 out of 10 from me. I didn’t feel like I’d discovered the second coming of Christ or anything, but I still had a lot of fun. Sometimes you just need a good, classic pop song and Rocket Punch has a lot of those. They also have some really good mini-albums, but I really wished that they’d kept going with their color scheme idea. It was such a nice way to set them apart from their peers, and in such a competitive environment with a lot of groups that sound similar, you really need that. Overall, I think they still have a lot of potential to carve out a niche for themselves and I really hope we haven’t seen the last of them.

Next time, we’re onto a re-do of a boy group. Tschüss!