I have been truly blessed this year in such a short amount of time with so much new K-pop! Just barely two and half months after ATEEZ’s latest banger, Golden Hour: Part 1, Stray Kids have upped the anti with their latest mini album, Ate.
Yes, they did! Similar to ATEEZ, I’ve actually never sat down and listened to one of their albums in full even though I am the owner of several of them now. I figure just like I did with Don Broco, I will start in reverse order and hopefully find plenty of gems in the earlier stuff. I saw in an interview where they said this mini album would be a completely different sound, but still keeping it in the Stray Kids wheelhouse. I am included to agree with that. While at a high level it sounds just like anything else Stray Kids have released, there is definitely a cohesive vision on this one. Perhaps “dark” and “hard” are the words I want to use?
Let’s start with opening track, “Mountains.” That was literally the most perfect song they could have led with here. It truly rips and is basically saying that they’re so good they’re looking down at people from the top. Hey, if you’ve got the confidence and the chops to back it up…preach. Almost as insanely catchy is the next track and lead single, “Chk Chk Boom.” I’m also not totally sure if this was specifically written for the new Deadpool movie, but either way they are now friends with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman who show up in the terrific music video. I mean, Chan and Felix definitely have an in with their fellow Aussie actor. But that single is an earworm and I cannot wait to hear it live next week!
They lose just a little bit of steam with the next two tracks. “Jjam,” though it has some really hard bass beats and tonal switches, can’t quite make up for how unbelievably corny those lyrics are. They made me cringe a little bit, but who knows, maybe I’m missing a super legit metaphor in there. Still doesn’t mean they aren’t corny. “I Like It” was definitely fun, but there wasn’t too much to remember about it. “Runners” gave off a similar vibe to “Lose My Breath,” but with a much darker bass beat. “Twilight” I swear to you could be played in literally any K-drama romance, though I wish they would have just stuck with singing here.
Rounding out Stray Kids’ new album is a song also called “Stray Kids.” I have yet to watch the video that goes along with the one, but I’ve heard that it makes nods to some of their older work over the course of their career. While it’s not the knock-out song on this album. I’m a big fan of their solid “wo-ahs!” and I love how it pays homage to their whole journey as a band, as well as looking forward to their future. This song is a reminder to Stays that they will continue to be themselves not matter how much success they achieve along the way.
Overall, this was a really solid mini album and I know I’ll be listening to it and Stray Kids in general before seeing them at Lollapalooza next week!