All those milestones were reached before they even released their first full album. And now even that has been achieved. The Red contains ten brand new songs from my favorite quartet-turned-quintet. As of this writing, The Red's lead track, Dumb Dumb, has already won three music show trophies so far, and the album itself has debuted in the Billboard World Albums chart at #1.
The album title is probably a reference to Red Velvet's "thing" of having a "Red side" (high-energy and experimental, with some hip-hop influences, as seen in songs like Happiness and Ice Cream Cake) and a "Velvet side" (smooth and a bit sexy, like Be Natural and Automatic). As expected, the songs in this new album are predominantly upbeat and quirky, in keeping with the group's Red side.
Dumb Dumb
Definitely the "Red"-est song in the album, Dumb Dumb is a catchy, creative, high-energy song that makes people want to dance uncontrollably. The music video is like a less-tropical version of the Happiness MV, which is to say it's also trippy as hell. I thought the scene where they did the robot dance accompanied by actual robotic arms was just pure genius.
As is the case with many almost-perfect-but-not-quite songs by SM groups, Dumb Dumb suffers from unnecessary repetition. The "dumbdumbdumbdumb" chant that started the song was extended almost beyond tolerable levels. A few YouTube reactors got visibly annoyed by it, though most of them seemed to have forgotten that one lapse in judgement thanks to the awesomeness of what came afterwards (Seulgi saves the day!). As usual, I used the handy dandy Audacity to fix this problem and significantly cut down the waiting time before my bias' part. (I also added a phaser effect to the slow bridge to make it a bit more interesting.)
The homage to Michael Jackson that made up the rap breakdown was an interesting way to target the international audience. For me, Irene's great execution of her lines (and her hip-thrusting in the video) saved it from being just a WTF moment. It's now one of my favorite parts of the song.
Huff n Puff
*Pointedly ignores the childish use of "n" in the title*
This one started great, but I'm afraid the chorus and rap lines before the chorus just didn't do it for me. I like the dance, though. And it seems a lot of fans liked the song, so I guess I'm in the minority on this one. Huff n Puff certainly fits the theme of the album. It's just not quite my style.
Campfire
Campfire sounded like a Girls' Generation song. I swear I could even hear Tiffany, Taeyeon, Sunny, Yoona, and Hyoyeon, though of course it's not Red Velvet's fault that they sometimes sound like their more popular sunbaes.
To be fair, this was done pretty well. They even managed to put a distinctly Red Velvet stamp on some parts. For example, Irene is a better rapper than Hyoyeon (or anyone in SNSD), so the similarity in their voices is almost trivial when the RV Leader starts firing off her lines.
Campfire is not one of my favorite songs in the album, but it's great that Red Velvet can do an SNSD-style song well enough that nobody could honestly say "SNSD could have done it better".
Red Dress
I wish SM promoted Red Dress instead of Huff n Puff on music shows. This is such a good song, and it even has "Red" in its title. Ugh! Such an opportunity wasted, SM!
Seriously though, I love this song. It's just so fun and the vocals is just so good that if it wasn't for Dumb Dumb I think Red Dress would have been a great title track.
Oh Boy
I certainly don't mind the repeated "Oh boy!" used as a hook at the beginning of this song. That part was sung sexily and is very appealing to my ears (and my...other parts...), unlike the almost annoying "dumbdumbdumbdumbdumbdumb" in Dumb Dumb. But then the songwriter decided to start each line of each verse with "Oh boy", and that was a big mistake. I ended up liking everything about Oh Boy except the verses.
You almost nailed this song, Mr./Ms. Songwriter! This should have been a hot Velvety track and you ruined it because of your laziness! *accusing stare*
Update: So, after hearing the song a few more times, I've gotten used to the verses. This song is basically perfection to my ears now.
Lady's Room
This song is obviously aimed at fans of the ultra-girly bubblegum pop common in the late 2000s K-Pop, and that's really not me. Nonetheless, Lady's Room still incorporates Red Velvet's experimental style somehow-- there were some strange but strangely attractive choices made with the vocals, and it almost made me like the song. Sadly, the uninspired and distracting instrumentals undermined whatever positive points the song might have for me.
I shall wait for a good remix of Lady's Room before giving it another try. Maybe.
Time Slip
This is another song with great vocals but misguided instrumentals. Time Slip feels like a Velvet song that someone tried to fit in The Red by adding weird hip hop elements, ruining the dreamy vibe suggested by the chorus. The result is something that alternately relaxes and jolts, which is just uncomfortable.
Don't U Wait No More
The editor in me wants to execute whoever decided to use "U" instead of "You" in the title, but I guess this juvenile spelling sort of fits this whimsical track that does away with plenty of conventions. It sounds like a mischievous acappella group trying to interrupt an R&B song performance. This was oddly mesmerizing for the first half of the song, but started getting tiresome near the end (especially since Wendy's ad libs were a tiny bit sloppy here in my opinion). I fired up Audacity and chopped a big chunk off near the end. Problem solved.
Don't U Wait No More is very entertaining, but only in small doses.
Day 1
As many others have pointed out, Day 1 sounds like an opening theme for a slice-of-life anime. It's a cute, old-style, easy-listening song. There's really not much else I could say about it.
Cool World
This is my favorite song in the album. There's almost nothing experimental, quirky, or gimmicky in this track. There are no rap parts to distract from the great singing, nor is it old-sounding or boring in any way. It's just a modern, well-written and well-sung piece that makes you want to sway from side to side in musical bliss. It's kind of funny how the song closes with a strange electronic beat, as if someone just remembered that this was supposed to be in a "Red" album, but it's somehow a fitting garnish to an already cool song.
***
Conclusion: Cool World, Red Dress, and Dumb Dumb are the highlights of The Red. There were several unfortunate mistakes that ruined some of the tracks for me, but most of those were the songwriters' or composers' fault. I think I would prefer a Velvet album more, but if the group manages to get better Red songs in the future then I really wouldn't complain.
Rating: 7 Teddy Bears out of 10
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