Taking a slightly slower pace than ‘ Domino’, STRAY KIDS presents a peppy track with ‘ Ssick.’ The staccato beats clubbed with hip hop give an overall enjoyable feel to the song. Through this song, the group is calling out those who keep on nagging them with lyrics like – “Yeah, everybody's talking nonsense / Tired of this and that, shaking my head/ You talk too much, stop meddling.” The beat drop just before the chorus heightens the level of anticipation. Playing on the Korean word yet again, they also give a nod to Jansori-kkun, meaning a person who often nags. Sori-kkun is a person who sings pansori, a traditional Korean art form of storytelling. The Korean title of the song translates to Sori-kkun. Earlier, the group stunned us by using the Ganggangsullae dance form, and this time they used pansori to do the same. The group has once again shown that they can club traditional Korean music with modern genres like noise and punk, seamlessly.
CHEESE is also a diss track at the people who spread hate and make fun without any reason – “Is it funny that we have a headache? (Cheese)/Are these A-grade vibes funny to you?” Using the different types of cheese (blue cheese, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese) and the expression ‘CHEESE’ as metaphors, the group calls out the machine nature of the industry where one is told to smile in front of the cameras, regardless of how one is feeling at that moment.
‘Cheese’ is replete with bass, electric guitar riffs, and thunderous claps and goes all out on the energetic front. Get your headphones on, because it is about to get a lot more noisy! Let’s take a deeper look at the second studio album NOEASY. STAYS (fandom name) were highly anticipating the next comeback from STRAY KIDS, and the hype was equally matched with tasteful teasers revealed periodically, leading up to the album release on August 23, 2021. The album comes 11 months after the group’s repackage album In Life. Each with a vibe of its own, the subunit tracks ‘Surfin’’,’ Gone Away’ and ’Red Lights’ (first created during Howl in Harmony) showcase that each member and each subunit carries its special strain of talent, which when clubbed together produces stellar results. With contributions from the members yet again, STRAY KIDS have stayed true to their identity of being a self-produced group. Han also contributed to the making of ‘Secret Secret’. Additionally, members Lee Know, Chang Bin, and Felix worked on the song ‘ Surfin’’, Chan and Hyun Jin contributed for ‘Red Lights’ whereas Han, Seung Min, and I.N.
Producer trio 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Chang Bin, Han) largely wrote and produced the album, with their contribution in 9 songs out of 14. STRAY KIDS makes luscious harmony and storms through thunderous creativity and ‘noisy’ glory with NOEASY – Album Review Playing a smart pun on the word ‘noisy’, through this album Stray Kids want to tell a story of their journey which has not been easy, because of using a different music style. The album features 14 tracks, including the group’s previous hit singles ‘ Wolfgang’ and ‘ Mixtape: OH’. Their latest album NOEASY is just a testament further to their reputation of being a talented bunch of artists. The octet also proved that they are a versatile bunch with songs in the R&B, dance, and even ballad genres. They cemented their reputation with songs like ‘ Easy’,’ Levanter’, ‘ Miroh’, ‘ God’s Menu’, ‘ Back Door’, to name a few. Since their debut in 2017 with ‘ Hellavator’, South Korean group STRAY KIDS has been largely associated with the foot stomping music.