Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Following a strong 2021, Stray Kids have mostly been off the mark for me in 2022, and “CASE 143” doesn’t do a lot to change that. For better or worse, it’s probably their best of the year, especially when paired with the visuals of the playfully meta music video that quite frankly is the strength of this comeback.
Thing is, it seems like the song attempts to capture that same playfulness, but ends up just throwing whatever into the mix, and the instrumental is busy for the hell of it with minimal purpose or direction. While the chorus hook is solid, even that gets rather repetitive quickly, and it struggles to compensate for everything happening around it.
“CASE 143” does close incredibly strong, with melody that perhaps should’ve come into the picture earlier given that the verses were a slog to get through. Honestly, it’s just rather hard to see myself ever seeking this out for a listen, and replays so far have hurt my impression rather than helped.
