The whole world is saying their name. A couple weekends ago fans were raving under a glittered sky during a performance of “MIROH”, fiery enough to warrant such pyrotechnics. Headlining BST Hyde Park is no mean feat, and Stray Kids gave all 65,000 in attendance everything they came for: a setlist of beloved gems and a performance to end all performances. At this point, if you’re not a Stray Kids enjoyer, you’ve either been living on the moon and can’t catch their tunes from over there, or your idea of a banger is a rum-less sea shanty (not the fun kind). In which case… you do you.
Baring an irresistibly punnable title, ATE is the eight-track album from Stray Kids all of us in music need right now. The album features title track “Chk Chk Boom”, here to resurrect the slowly receding wave of K-Pop tunes with latin inspirations. Its music video has Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds cameoing in Marvel costume, with the latter actor milking his ninth member gag. With half the bombast of “God’s Menu” and twice the zest of “LALALALA”, “Chk Chk Boom” possesses the perfect noise Stray Kids have become so immensely popular for.
“MOUNTAINS” has got that ever-ascending epic-ness of a K-Pop beat with eight boys’ zeal infused within. “JJAM” joins our small but relatively large playlist of food-themed Stray Kids songs. Who can blame them? The kitchen is a source of inspiration for many. The boys’ secret to keeping fans well fed with good music is by, well, keeping fed themselves. This time, sticky jam is their calling, and it’s finger lickin’ as usual.
The mandatory soft song insert, “twilight”, is a bit out of place on this album, but you can take it like a refreshing water break post-moshing. You’d almost mistake it for an artist change on a playlist, yet Stray Kids persist in reminding everyone they’ve all got lovely voices: if the instruments in all the previous songs were just too distracting. Speaking of, liquid drum and bass gets to shine here and there on “Runners” and “Stray Kids” (the song), and the latter is a beautiful ode to their entire career as a group, referencing emblems of their past years.
We get the feeling it’s the end of an era for Stray Kids. A new chapter awaits: of renewed star power, and they’re not coming down from their flight any time soon. After headlining three massive festivals and dropping an album within less than a month, the boys have more than earned themselves a break.
There’s no rush for them to come back: we’ll have this one on repeat for a while.
Stray Kids can be found on Instagram, Twitter and all streaming platforms.
