Our boys from Stray Kids are back again with their new album ‘IN LIFE’. This is a repackage of their previous album ‘GO LIVE’. You can find our review about that here. For this review, I’ll only write about the songs that weren’t on the ‘GO LIVE’ EP, so if you want to read about those, feel free to check our previous article out.
IN LIFE
We start the album off with the single ‘The Tortoise and The Hare’. What a way to open the album though. We get some dark vibes and some amazing play with the rap flow which represents the tortoise and the hare mentioned in the title.
‘Back Door’ follows that and we got a brand new music video. The camera work in this is insane and amazing! The song itself is kind of groovy and fun and I’m in love. The beat in the chorus is so, so dope and had me bopping. Overall, 10/10.
We go a bit softer (but not that much softer) with ‘B Me’. I really enjoyed the play with the pauses and the electronic instrumentals. The chorus is really catchy and it has that classic Stray Kids sound. There are some lovely harmonies in there as well. The last thirty seconds were a bit of a surprise, but totally dig it.
‘Any’ comes after and interesting fact, one of the listed credits is Tele, who helped produce Lizzo’s ‘Truth Hurts’. The members are playing with autotune here and the entire thing is such an earworm.
With ‘Ex’ I was expecting a full blown ballad, but it’s still not quite there. It’s softer than the previous songs, but there’s still enough ‘oomph’ in it that I wouldn’t consider it a ballad. There is some beautiful harmonization and some fantastic adlibs.
For the first time we also get sub-units! The track ‘We Go’ is from the sub-unit Bang Chan, Changbin and HAN. According to the album introduction this song was improvised in an hour when they were in the US. So honestly, kudos to them because the track is solid and a great listen.
The next sub-unit consists of Lee Know, Hyunjin and Felix. The track ‘Wow’ was written by the three members and Kass. This song is fantastic. The instrumentation is insane and there are so many interesting things happening at once. The vocals are absolutely lovely.
The last unit is Seungmin, I.N. and Changbin with the song ‘My Universe’. Vocals front and center that’s it. This song is soft and still feels happy. Changbin’s rap is a lovely addition.
The rest of the tracks are from their ‘GO LIVE’ EP.
Overall
Just when you think Stray Kids outdid themselves, they go above and beyond. The talent is insane y’all. ‘IN LIFE’ by Stray Kids is excellent and I’m sure they’ll break their own sales record.
You can find the album on Spotify here.
