Review | K-pop’s Red Velvet reign triumphant with Queendom, the girl group’s long-awaited sixth EP
- Queendom, the K-pop girl group’s sixth EP, arrives more than a year after their last album, December 2019’s Psycho
- The lead track of the same name blends the group’s pop song musicality with lusher synth styling, while songs like Pushin’ N Pullin’ reveal a velvety, R&B side
“Shall we start again?” asks Red Velvet in their latest single Queendom, which dropped on August 16.
Queendom, which serves as the lead track and shares a name with the title of their sixth EP, arrives more than a year after the K-pop girl group’s last album, December 2019’s Psycho.
Since then, they’ve faced ups and downs, including member Wendy suffering a serious injury after a stage accident, and solo and group projects from the members. Fittingly, the new music feels a bit like a comforting, cosy homecoming after a time of chaos for the world and the band.
Both Queendom the song and the album feel very familiarly Red Velvet while adding another new element to their discography. The team has always vacillated between girlishness and maturity, balancing their upbeat “red” and smooth “velvet” sides, and this release is the epitome of that.
For the single, Red Velvet blended their bright, bubbly pop song of summer musicality with their lusher synth styling, balancing a catchy, magical spell-like chorus (“That’s our queendom yeah/Ladida-do Ba-badida”) with slinky, empowering verses that bounce between the members’ tonality, and is a welcome return to Wendy’s power vocals.
Sound familiar? The K-pop artists who are remaking old tunes
For its music video, Queendom reintroduces Red Velvet with a sense of nostalgia for their past, with the four original members passing the baton – or, in this case, a wand – to youngest member Yeri, who joined the act in 2015 following their 2014 debut.
Like Queendom, the rest of the tracks on Red Velvet’s similarly reintroduce listeners to the band in a satisfying blend of something old with something new, with a particular emphasis on the band’s deft hand with falsetto and harmonising littered throughout.
There’s Pose with its camp-inspired bass, bell quirkiness and model-ready poise that explodes with energy, and the sleek whimsical synth-pop of Knock on Wood packed with references to magical characters like Harry Potter, Willy Wonka and the Wizard of Oz.
The snappy gloss of Better Be evokes ’90s R&B and new jack swing hits and soars with the quintet’s singsong back and forth, while Pushin’ N Pullin’ is the epitome of Red Velvet’s velvety, R&B side. It begins with a quirky intro, then slows for a rich delivery of the romantic lyrics, pushing and pulling apart the vocals to emphasise the band’s harmony and each woman’s distinct tone.
Album closer Hello, Sunset (or Again, Summer in Korean) slows things down quite a bit, evoking retro pop and soul instrumentals to create a slow jam that’s built for summer romances.
It may not be reinventing the Red Velvet wheel, but Queendom is a mature take on the band’s vibrant summertime styling, and walks a familiar, comforting path towards a new stage of their career after a time of uncertainty for the band and their fans.
