Once again, Stray Kids is nominated for Best Male Group and Best Male (Group) Choreography. Miroh, Side Effects, Double Knot and Astronaut are also eligible for Best Song of 2019. To support Stray Kids, click here to vote if you haven’t before voting closes next Tuesday!

Stray Kids is currently in the midst of their Levanter promotions, as the only just recently made their comeback with the song and Clé: Levanter just earlier this month. But now, Stray Kids have made a surprise single release. Today, the group dropped their next mixtape track title as Mixtape: Gone Days (henceforth referred to as Gone Days).

Based on what I am gathering, Gone Days is a play on words with the Korean term, kkondae. It refers to a person who continually pushes outdated thoughts and expectations onto the younger generation purely based on their age and status. When you look at the lyrics of the song, it is definitely a diss track and probably is directed to someone. The song falls into the hip-hop genre and showcases the rappers in a very strong limelight. The vocals don’t get much of an opportunity to shine, mainly because their parts is so heavily doused in autotune. And given my past track record with heavy autotune, I am not much of a fan this time. I have to admit there is a nice ring to Gone Days and it might catch on in a few weeks, since there is a very bubbly atmosphere and active beat. But the heavy autotune is a very big fence to get over for me.

I am not too sure who Stray Kids is dissing in this track. But based on the music video, it seems like this person works at JYP Entertainment. After all, the horse figure in the music video is wearing a JYP Entertainment tag. I find this to be a fun video, showing the members rebelling against the horse figure in many ways. I also feel like Woojin is meant to be part of this video, based on the layout of the desks, but he was edited out due to his departure. My favourite part is Bangchan patting the horse figure, which seems like Bangchan is feeling sorry for the horse, who’s head is full of outdated thoughts and expectations.

Song – 7.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.1/10