The ambient lead single on their second album [X X], “Butterfly” puts the focus on the diverse vocal tones among the dozen women of LOONA, moving between, Auto-Tuned wails, breathy verses and coy raps that permeate the bass-infused, synthy melody’s sense of bright airiness and groovy beat drops. Throughout, the women sing about flying like the titular creature and letting dreams take flight.
"Butterfly" was released through an inspiring music video that was shot in France, Hong Kong, China, the United States, Iceland and Korea and intersperses captivating dance sequences of the members of LOONA with empowering moments featuring diverse women of a variety of races and creeds from throughout the globe. It also features several nods to past LOONA videos.
According to a description on the song’s music video, its title is a nod to the fact that “LOONA causes a Butterfly effect through music for the listeners to gain courage, find oneself, and raise one’s voice. Anyone under influence, is another LOONA.” The “butterfly effect” is a theory in which the smallest elements affect the whole of existence. LOONA’s reach has spread seemingly at random throughout the farthest reaches of digital spaces, where the phrase “Stan LOONA” rallies fans.
The YouTube blurb also explains some of the aspects of the LOONA universe, or Loonaverse as it is also known, as featured throughout LOONA's imagery and video. The girl group has been weaving an extended creative narrative for years, since they began releasing their extended pre-debut promotional series of solo and group songs in 2016.
Along with “Butterfly,” [X X] was released on Tuesday. The compilation, or repackage, album of last year’s [+ +], it features five other new tracks from the rising girl group. Upon its release, [+ +] went to No. 4 on the World Albums chart dated Sept. 1, 2018.
Watch the music video for LOONA’s “Butterfly” here:
