Tag: KARD

KARD made their return with their 8th mini-album, DRIFT, and the title track Touch. It is their first release since their digital single DETOX in December 2024 (which I never got around to reviewing).

It has been just over 2 days since Touch was released, and I have given it multiple listens. But I still don’t get much out of the song. I get a 2000s vibe from the track, and I appreciate the hip-hop, rap-esque sound profile from that era in Touch. SOMIN and JIWOO’s vocals in the pre-choruses were nice, and I liked how they split up the bridge amongst themselves. But it is what Touch doesn’t do well that speaks volumes to me. Touch overall lacks personality and sounds mundane. The instrumental was okay at first, but the percussive elements became too consistent, pulling the song back and making it feel plain. Touch would have benefited from some bombastic highlights or accents within its instrumental, which I felt the song was aiming for but never realised. The hooks were also lacklustre and unmemorable. In retrospect, Touch is a fair song, but not their best.

Touch‘s music video is steamy, which is very much in line with the group’s brand. I do feel like the production value isn’t there for this comeback, but they make do with some sexy scenes. Note that the keyword in the sentence is ‘some’. Some of the dancers were standing around, and weakly body-waving in the background isn’t that enticing. I do feel like the ending, with the extras disappearing and one female character remaining behind with KARD might mean something, but this wasn’t explored well in the video. I wish J.Seph and BM were better utilised in the video. They very much felt like extras until their solo scenes came on, and then they reverted to being extras as soon as we passed their solo moment.

When I watch the performance for Touch, I get two distinct vibes. For the most part, the routine feels restrained and doesn’t look that energetic. However, as soon as we land in the last chorus, the choreography kicks it up a notch, and the members round out the routine with an intense ending.

Song – 6.5/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 6.8/10

It has been over a year since May 2023’s ICKY. Since then, they have been on a world tour, and BM released his first solo mini-album, Element, led by the single Nectar (which features Jay Park and is a single I have yet to review – check back in the future for that review). Earlier this week, the co-ed group returned with Tell Me Momma.

I will always support artists trying something new, but it must be compelling enough to get me coming back. Tell My Momma is KARD’s most subdued and softest title track yet. It is an interesting deviation from their usual output, which has been much more intense and powerful. When they hadn’t gone down that route, they kept their music upbeat, which has enticed me to return for more. Tell My Momma ventures into new territory but doesn’t compel me to return. I found everything up until the BM’s section to be quite good. JIWOO’s opening lines made for a good start, and the first run at the chorus built up the song with a heavier beat. But when the song reverted to the verse for BM’s rap, Tell My Momma became stuck for the rest of the track and never found its way out of the same sound. Very quickly, it became unexciting and bland. From there, I found the melodies and hooks to be forgettable. The instrumental felt generic and offered nothing new or different to make Tell My Momma interesting. While the arrangement of Tell My Momma enables a greater focus on JIWOO and SOMIN (the group’s vocalists, who both sounded decent throughout), it also served as a double-edged sword for BM and J.Seph. Underwhelming delivery with autotune used to ‘fit them into’ with the song, constriction of their parts, and generally poor usage of the two rappers just didn’t help the song grow on me. Truthfully, I held myself back from making these exact comments immediately after Tell My Momma‘s release on Tuesday. I hoped (for KARD’s sake) that Tell My Momma was a slow grower, even if it did so slightly. But unfortunately, the song has not budged from these thoughts even days after Tell My Momma’s release and I found no reason to hold onto these thoughts. I doubt it would change into the future.

Just like the song, the music video for Tell My Momma felt generic and didn’t offer anything that I thought was interesting—just closeups and choreography scenes. The video could have been a little creative, perhaps building on the fourth wall perspective we got during BM’s solo shots and extending that to the other members’ shots. I think that would have made the video interesting. Besides that, all four members looked good throughout the video despite all going blonde for this comeback. I liked how there was still variety in their looks, which helped the members bring a bit of individuality to the all-blonde concept they have going on. There were also some visually appealing shots, especially of JIWOO and the outside of the building where the video is predominantly shot.

The song’s softer tone and slower pace allow KARD to explore a somewhat sensual energy in its choreography. It is definitely not full-blown sensual, but the swaying movements do bring on a flirty atmosphere and a subtle sensual touch, which goes hand-in-hand with the song’s lyrics about taking the next step in a relationship.

Song – 5.5/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 6.5/10

Last month’s Without You was just a pre-release single for KARD. I don’t think there was any indication of this at the time of Without You‘s release, so to hear the co-ed group was returning with their 6th mini-album and new title track was a pleasant surprise. Both the new mini-album and title track are titled ICKY. As mentioned in their Without You review, this is KARD first official comeback since RE: and Ring The Alarm.

ICKY is another decent track from KARD. Not exactly one of their best, but the repetition of the title which makes the song super catchy, Latin beats and groovy aspects of ICKY do come off striking enough. There are some things that I don’t particularly like with the track, such as the dragged out ‘ICKY‘ (which ironically feels icky to me) at the start of the song and the reversion to trap for BM’s rap sequence. For the latter, the contrast here is jarring and unsettling for me. Though I did think the whistle in the background was a nice way to blend that sequence somewhat with the rest of the song. The vocals and rapping were quite strong and I appreciated the members’ effort in ICKY. However, I did feel like they were holding back. But the issue didn’t lie with the quartet. To potentially take it all to the next level (and hence ICKY), I felt there was opportunity for the instrumental to go harder. Some bass or bolder elements in the instrumental would have been ideal for both ICKY and KARD, given that I feel they thrive on intensity as a group. Other than that, I enjoyed the new release from the group.

As for the music video, it was pretty good. My only criticism is that the usage of the chroma key could have been a bit more polished. Aside from that, there is a bit of a story line to the video. Not entirely sure of the meaning or symbolism of this story. But it is clear to me that Jiwoo is some sort of monster (given that she is slimy and seen in the green liquid from the start of the video. The three other members have somehow been trapped. We see Somin in a continuous hallway. J.Seph is sucked into the liquefying floor. BM is falls into a never-ending pool of green liquid. Each of these three ends up in Jiwoo’s lair, who ultimately corrupts the trio (as depicted by the green glow each member gives off and BM’s changed eyes at the very end). Very interesting indeed.

As for the choreography, I have always liked how charismatic the group is on stage. And the choreography for ICKY proves just that. They all have really nailed the whole idea of showing a balanced and uniform amount of charisma throughout, even whilst performing a routine like this. It all translate to an intense routine. No moves stood out in particular, but I did like stomping factor they had going on, along with the hand motions, which gives the choreography a bit more complexity.

Song – 7.5/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.8/10

Next up on the blog is a song review for KARD’s latest release, Without You. The new song dropped earlier this week in the midst of the multiple comebacks we have seen this week. Without You follows the release of Ring The Alarm, which was released in June last year to mark the return of KARD following a two year hiatus in which member J.Seph carried out his mandatory military enlistment.

Without You is a change to what the group usually puts out. While I do like change, I do feel like this one does not result in much for KARD. The best way to think about Without You is that it is a pretty bare song. All bones and no meat. It lacks anything substantial to make it a standout track. Without You is more vocally driven compared to past title tracks. This moves the female members (Jiwoo and Somin) to the front of the song. I quite liked the driving power they add to Without You through the verses and Somin’s high note towards the end of the song. The choruses were striking thanks to the melody and rhythm, and there was a potential cool factor to it. But without much definition to it (in terms of instrumentation – more on this later) and anything to really build upon it, the choruses come off as empty instead. However, with a more vocally driven song, this does mean the male members (BM and J.Seph), who handle the raps in their tracks, take more of a back seat in Without You. While there is nothing wrong with this, their parts are quite limited in Without You and I wished they had more to do in the song than their small confined rap segments. I also admit that there is a lack of cohesion between their parts and the rest of the song. Their parts felt more standalone and this makes Without You a somewhat awkward listen, in my opinion. The instrumentation throws it back to their bright tropical sounds they are pretty much known for from their early days. But it stays quite flat and doesn’t build/go anywhere. I do think Without You has enough to serve as a foundation as a cool track, but it is in need of more cohesion and substance.

Just like the song, the music video is also quite empty. Aside from the one garden set that they film inside of and in front of, there is literally nothing much else to the music video. I did think the colours in the garden, lighting and the outfits the members donned throughout the video worked well with one another to create an aesthetic.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like KARD is promoting Without You due to their lack of appearance on the music shows this week. From what I can see in the music video, the choreography looks good, but nothing stands out exactly. However, we only see the routine for the choruses, so there is probably more to see for the performance aspect.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 6.5/10

KARD’s last comeback was way back in 2020 with GUNSHOT. And following that, J.Seph enlisted into the military and the group practically went on a mini hiatus. For the other three members (BM, Jiwoo and Somin) solo promotions and activities were their primary focus up until this year, when it was confirmed that J.Seph would return and KARD would return as a group for a new comeback. KARD officially dropped Re: and the title track Ring The Alarm back at the end of June of this year.

For me, KARD always excelled with songs where they went hard and powerful. Ring The Alarm unfortunately didn’t live up to that expectation for me. And this might be the reason to why I have been holding off on reviewing Ring The Alarm. I want to like the song, given that it is KARD. But the best I can come with even after a month is that Ring The Alarm was an okay song, with decent melodic hooks and a nice ring overall. However, I feel like the weaker aspects of the song ironically speaks the most to me. The moombahton with rhythmical bass instrumental was quite weak and doesn’t really bring much excitement to the table. If I had to describe it, I would liken it to a dull colour. Though I do appreciate that the summer vibes that comes from it. The members themselves don’t add much to the song. Rather, they blend into the dull background and they don’t give much zing to the song. I know they could have gone harder to just give Ring The Alarm more body and intensity. That being said, I did find manage to identify a few aspects that had potential, but they are very minor sequences/details and are easily passed. Some examples include the start of the song with the alarms and bass and the ‘Move your body‘ chant that both BM and Jiwoo contributed to. The part in J.Seph’s rap sequence where the instrumental was minimised continues to play in my head and I liked the minimalistic aspect of said part. Even the slight amplification at the very end which gave Ring The Alarm outro a slight taste of intensity was sufficient in winning me over. But as I said, these are small details and not the larger sequences that make up the other 98% of the song. I think it is safe to say that I wanted more. Simply because, by the time Ring The Alarm wrapped up, I was left unsatisfied.

Part of me thinks the music video follows the song down the dull path. However, upon closer inspection for this review, I find parts of the music video to be striking. Certain solo shots for some member had a boldness to them, which I liked. For example, Somin’s red heart scenes, Jiwoo’s diamond set, BM’s mountain climb scenes caught my attention. But apart from that, the music video wasn’t memorable and I couldn’t figure out what was happening (if there was even a plotline to the video).

The choreography for this comeback was actually quite good. Even though the song’s dullness softness the choreography a fair bit compared to the group’s past performances, I liked that KARD managed to showcase their usual style in the performance. J.Seph really stood out for me in this routine, as he puts a bit more hip-hop energy into his execution, which makes captivating to watch. The outro sequence also had a neat bounce to it.

Song – 6/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 6.7/10

Apologies once again for the delay posting of this review.

By far, KARD is one of the few artists that have been quite consistent with their music releases. Somehow their work always seems to come of as quite fresh and unique. This may be attributed to their co-ed formation, which enables the group to capitalise on dynamics that traditional male or female groups would be unable to. And while this has proven to be quite successful on the international front, the group hasn’t really made much of an impact on the domestic front, for the exact same reason. It seems that GUNSHOT, their latest title track from the single album, Way With Words, seems to be their last shot as a quartet for the next two years, as J.Seph’s impending military enlistment looms.

GUNSHOT sounded a little odd to me, at first. And that is simply because it is a lighter release, in comparison to their heavier songs we have heard from the group previously, such as Dumb Litty, Bomb Bomb and Red Moon (their most recent release prior to this comeback). But after multiple listens over the last few days, that feeling of oddness has disappeared and I am left with a satisfied afterglow with GUNSHOT. Aside from lighter nature of the song, there are a few other differences with this song. compared to their last few releases (mentioned above). GUNSHOT is a vocally-centric track, stepping back from their intense EDM dance sounds and their rap-dominant tracks. As a result, the focus for this group is on the female members (the vocalists of the group), with the male members not receiving as much limelight this time around. I quite like this change up, as we get to hear KARD from a different perspective this time around. And additionally, the song comes off a lot more melodic, which I find suitable for the song’s message of ‘using words as bullets’. I did wish J.seph and BM’s parts had just a bit more intensity to them, just to make their sections more memorable. The instrumental still is in the realm of EDM, but it isn’t as profound. Somehow it still manages to come off as intense and powerful, which might be due to the combination of everything else. The one thing I just for are bolder gunshots to really make GUNSHOT‘s chorus more captivating and jaw-dropping. What we got suffices, but the gunshots seemed masked by the rest of the instrumentals.

For the first time ever, we have an official theory for the music video! KARD sat down to explain the video and you can watch it here. Truthfully, I am still a little confused but this is what I got out of the explanation. Essentially, there are two worlds in the video. The first world, where everyone is wounded and surrounded by cameras, is a world where everyone follows the rules. The second world is where the members are criminals. The actions of the second world hurt the members in the first world, where both worlds are connected by cameras. This is an elaborate way of saying the actions of one person on one side of the world affects a person on the other side of the world, through the power of social media. The comments a person make can potentially be harmful and hurt another. A very interesting take on this scenario. At the end of the video we see the both Jiwoo from the first and second world the same scene. First world Jiwoo takes a paper gun and shoots the second world Jiwoo. KARD’s video explains it in two manners. The first is karma. What you do will always come back to yourself. The second explanation is that scene is in the first world Jiwoo’s imagination, as it is unlikely for the both of the Jiwoo’s to come into contact and that we can’t really do much in reality. It is definitely an interesting video and one worth deciphering, as I actually had a different theory in mind. Aside from the plot, what I like the most about this video are the members’ acting, especially in their psycho mode.

The choreography looked really cool. I really like the gun action they keep on pulling when they sing the title of the song. I also really enjoyed how powerful the dance moves were, making it captivating to watch. All the members did wonderful with their routine, though I can’t help but be drawn to J.Seph throughout the performances.

Song – 8.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.8/10

The next comeback to receive a day-late review is by KARD. The co-ed group is finally back after the release of their 2019 Bomb Bomb and Dumb Litty. Their new track is titled Red Moon and it is the title track from the album of the same name. In a recent review, the group aspires to release a a studio album in the future, which is definitely long overdue for the group. The only thing standing in the group’s way is J.Seph’s impending military enlistment, which means that there won’t be a full group comeback for about two years. While J.Seph is still here, however, let’s enjoy what Red Moon has to offer.

My first impressions of the song wasn’t that great. I thought it was rather bland. I am kind of glad I didn’t write this review yesterday, as it would have been so different. Red Moon swings right at you at the right moments. The song is another house based dance track (it is a KARD thing) that employs very heavy beats throughout the song to provide it with some definition. I think the song has good melodies and will be one to stay on my playlist for a long time. The vocal work is pretty amazing and the rapping is very impressive. I really loved how Somin echoes Jiwoo during the second verse. Something that I am still not 100% used to yet is how the song feels like it is a mashup of two songs. The verses and (what I believe) is the first set of choruses is one song, while the more robust and heavy part (the ‘run baby run’ one) felt liked it belong to another. While they are distinct, somehow they come together quite well the second time. The first times feels a little awkward but I guess a few more listens might just help merge the two together. Overall, a good song.

I thought the video was very classy. It is a dance track that looks and sounds likes what KARD has been doing throughout their careers thus far. But there was a little high-end feel when it came to the visual side of this comeback. All the members appeared in a glass box and wore really fancy outfits that really looked stunning. Likewise, that second heavy drop chorus featured the members in a cat-walk like moment. I thought was really cool and made perfect sense. There were more urban looks in the music video and they looked cool as well. But we have seen so much of that already, so it was a nice change.

The key point dance was from the first heavy chorus, which I thought looked cool in the small snippet that we got initially. And it is still looks impressive in the whole routine. I liked how they repeated the same routine but in a completely different formation the second time around. And it looks fresh as well, rather than using the same repeated moves that we have seen from the group before.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8/10

Returning today is KARD, who has dropped their latest digital single, Dumb Litty. Picking today as a comeback date is rather intriguing. It is rare to see a mainstream KPOP group to release their comeback track on a Sunday, let alone a weekend release in general. But it is KARD and I am not going to question why a Sunday was picked. Might as well get a day of exposure before the rest of the competition. We last saw KARD through their Bomb Bomb promotions earlier in the year.

It seems like KARD’s songs are getting more intense as they release them. This is their most powerful release to date. It isn’t really surprising though, as it is something I am sure KARD had kept hidden for a while. Dumb Litty is centred around a lot of rapping, bringing BM, J.Seph and Jiwoo’s talents out in a very trendy fashion. Somin’s vocals do a pretty good job at keeping up, as well. I find the song to be very in your face, which is definitely a good quality. I also liked how they didn’t tone any parts back, keeping me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It seems a little cliche to do that nowadays, so I am glad they stayed clear of that. For the instrumental, the song features a very strong exotic vibe and hip-hop sound, with the combination of both giving the song a lot of character (if the rapping and fierceness weren’t enough). The chorus was catchy and I think something of this powerfulness deserves a lot more listens in the coming weeks.

The concept that the members went with this time around is Greek methodology. The choice of Greek mythology gods and goddesses for the members felt very fitting for each member. BM channelled Zeus and Thor, fitting for his position as leader of the group. J.Seph was Ares and Dionysus. Somin was Aphrodite and Chloris, while Jiwoo was Hera and Athena. And it wasn’t just the concept teaser images that featured this theme, as the members portrayed these strong mythological characters in the video. I thought the sets and use of colour in the video were fitting for the group and characters. The choreography shots were amazing. The highlight would be Jiwoo’s stare at the start of the bridge. They did kind of scared me and I think that will haunt me tonight.

Not really a performance thing. But I like how the lines were slightly more distributed this time around. This gives the chance for cameras to focus on the members in a more fair way, which will make any fans happy. As for the choreography, it is definitely a strong performance. The chorus moves were matching with the song, in the sense that it felt like it was coming at you the entire time. They also look very charismatic, which is hard to pull off when you have moves like this and lines to deliver like so.

Song – 8.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.6/10