'a hard splash of summer'

The Red Summer; red velvet

[reworked from 2017]

'red flavor' came out swinging. the album opener gave us the hard hitting summer bop we all needed and craved. when i first wrote this review i knew it would do well on charts. after all, who wouldn't love a infectious and bright pop tune (see: 'dynamite' by bts).

following the summer classic, was 'you never know'. this was your very normal "adventurous" summer song. and by adventurous i do not mean sonically adventurous. rather, its the nostalgia of the summer days where you would go on a road trip with your friends.

the album continues with 'zoo', serving tropical house. now if you know me, you know i absolutely despise tropical house. of course, the music that comes out of tropical house is relatively decent. however 2017 was the year kpop producers decided to wring tropical house until it was dry. coming back to this song, it is still unsurprising in terms of the tropical house scale, but it's not annoying. i'll give them that.

day transitions to night with the 4th song on the mini album with 'mojito'. i did enjoy that the producers when making this album also considered the night aspect of summer. the bonfires, the mojitos by the beach at night. somehow they managed to capture that feel very well with 'mojito'. the spirit of summer as one of fun with friends was felt in this simple and easy listen.

finally, the quintet close off the album with the slow dancing 'hear the sea'. now this song received little hype when it was released, but it was definitely my favourite song on the album. its clean and quite beautiful. the string instruments in tandem with the soft piano brings the album to a peaceful and satisfied finish.

best songs: 'red flavor', 'hear the sea'

would i listen to this album again: no, realistically. but it is nice for getting yourself in the summer mood

rate: 6.5/10. my policy with mini albums is hard and fast. with only so many songs to make an impact, you need to be impressive on every track. red velvet can and has done better.