Huntr/x - Golden: SONG REVIEW
Hi everyone! I wanted to share my thoughts this time on a song I never got the chance to review fully in 2025, because, The Pulse never played it on their countdown, despite it being one of the biggest songs of that year, if not the singular biggest. I wanted to do a song review after relooking at my Fast Car song review (which I republished if you want to see!) and thought I would do the same for Golden, the biggest song of 2025 on Spotify.
If you somehow managed to escape Golden, I wouldn't know how you would be able to, but if you did manage to escape the song, then I'll just let you know that Golden is from a fictional K-Pop group Huntr/x, which consist of Rumi, Mira and Zoey, or in actual singer terms, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI, respectively, of the animated film KPop Demon Hunters. It became the first K-Pop song to win a Grammy award, and won a Golden Globe and Academy award. So yeah, an absolute smash hit, but did it deserve to be? well let's analyze it.
I'm a sucker for Hot-AC music, there's a reason why I review SiriusXM's The Pulse, after all. and while I don't think Golden screams Hot AC like the other big 2025 hit, Ordinary by Alex Warren, It still definitely fits there. It's very family friendly (it is from a kids movie, after all), very upbeat, very uplifting in the lyrics, and is definitely, by all accounts, a pop song. To me, K-Pop is so generic (which is not always a bad thing!) and so inoffensive compared to American pop stars that it gets it's own genre even though they musically are very similar. And with so many songs out there, it's harder and harder to find new hit songs that are still very catchy. and yet, K-Pop songs can usually figure out how to be so catchy, which is why it's no surprise to me that the genre is becoming more and more popular, each and every day.
Okay, now for my opinion. I... actually really like Golden. It's definitely inoffensive radio friendly music, but that doesn't mean it's bad at all. It's catchy, fun, and is now instantly recognizable. It's a song that yes, can get annoying, but something I don't see any normal person having an issue with it. To me, there's nothing wrong with the song that would make me find it worse than annoying. I personally don't find it annoying at all, but I can see some finding it annoying with overplay.
Overall, it took me some time to realize how great Golden is, but after months, it finally grew on me. I'm glad this was a hit, and I can now see exactly why it was. Except, maybe I can't see why The Pulse ignored it still...
Initial Rating: 8/10
Updated Rating: 9/10
