Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
While many came around on “Rookie“ eventually, I wasn’t one of them no matter how hard I tried, and I still longed for something like “Dumb Dumb“ I could get into from Red Velvet. Well, their “Red Flavor” comeback started to build the hype with their quality teasers, and after a bit of a delay with the music video release, I’m happy to say they’ve delivered a summer hit.
“Red Flavor” was jarring in how straightforward and poppy it was for Red Velvet, if that makes sense. I expected a bunch of twists and turns from the start, with maybe some mess, but that never came. It was a mainstream-friendly summer pop song that brought an irresistible sound to the table but still maintained some of Red Velvet’s identity as well.
The verses don’t let up on tempo but it allows space between the beat at times, while the pre-chorus serves the purpose of allowing things to showcase vocals and relax a bit so it doesn’t feel overly busy, and it also builds up to the hook that comes right back in with aggressiveness and tempo. Speaking of the hook, it’s just infectious, possessing like a quasi-musical type of feel that relies less on the trend of going with instrumentals and relies more on vocals. It’s a hook that keeps the listeners thoroughly engaged and waiting for the next time it comes around.
“Red Flavor” also toes the thin line between quirky and messy extremely well, including enough bells and whistles (like sudden tempo switches & odd background voices/noises) to prevent it from being anything but generic despite the public-friendly nature of it. Most importantly for me, it just makes me want to listen again. “Red Flavor” never feels like three minutes and 25 seconds have passed by the end, and the replay button beckons you to press it over and over.
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