Admittedly, Stray Kids’ previous mixtapes haven’t done much for me, but I would still be a fool not to check this out. Plus, I have some prepping to do before I see them again at the end of May!
What also struck me as odd about Mixtape: Dominate is that it’s in a digital format only. Seems like a missed opportunity to make some serious cash. If I’ve learned anything, both about other fans and myself, is that it doesn’t matter that it’s the same songs, if there’s multiple versions, people will likely buy more than one of them. I also don’t really know if previous Stray Kids’ mixtapes have been available in a physical format. Maybe these will make their way onto some future full length release. Given how much music they produced last year, I wouldn’t put it past them.
Anyway, the first song off this record was “Giants” though it’s the Korean version. Personally, I don’t need other versions of songs. If the original was in Japanese, then I like the Japanese version! Same thing goes for when these groups do all English covers of songs. I don’t need it! I liked it before I could understand it and I still like it now! Strangely, the Korean version does feature a fair bit more in English, so I wonder if some of the Japanese parts don’t have a direct Korean translation. Or maybe the song was originally written in English and translated to Japanese? I may never know! Either way, I like “Giants,” and this wasn’t a bad rendition.
The rest of the mixtape featured songs by duos. Bangchan and Hyunjin teamed up again for another song that apparently serves as a sequel to their song “Red Lights.” This time it’s called “Escape.” In all honesty, neither of those songs do it for me. I definitely feel like I’m in the minority, but it’s true! Sure, the videos are alluring, but as far as the actual songs go, they have much better ones. Speaking of, “Truman,” Han and Felix’s song, is by far the biggest triumph on this mixtape. I’m not sure how involved these two were in the production, but it is so cool. At first it starts as more of a spoken word piece, but then morphs into something truly noise-pop and head-banging all at the same time. I love the lyric, “we’re so advanced, we’re the first and the last.” At times, Felix’s parts really reminded me of Travis Scott in “Sicko Mode.” And we got a swear word – what?!
Probably the runner up on the album for me was Changbin and I.N.’s song, “Burnin’ Tires.” Apparently their voices aren’t suited to each other so the thought of them doing a song together seemed like it would never happen, but these guys are creative. I knew they’d make it work! The song is really high energy, almost like it should be playing at a racetrack, backed by a really cool, electronic bass throughout. It seemed to me that they really stretched their vocals in lots of new ways – especially Changbin! Unfortunately, the weakest link on this mixtape for me was Seungmin and Lee Know’s “Cinema.” And that’s really just a me not liking slower, ballad-like songs thing. I like that they let Seungmin do what he loves and I also like that this song gives Lee Know the chance to really showcase his vocals which are consistently good, in my opinion.
Overall, this was a fun and cool mixtape. As I said, these guys already give us so much all the time, so the fact that this drops just a couple of months before their world tour is crazy and impressive. They are definitely striking while the iron is hot and I think they will be firing on all cylinders for quite some time. I think by the time their military service come around it will be a devastating blow, but hopefully the fan base stays strong. I look forward to seeing them again next month!