It’s a day of comebacks from ‘girl groups backed by legendary producers.’ While STAYC have Black Eyed Pilseung on their side, TRI.BE’s discography is driven by K-pop legend Shinsadong Tiger. But, this pairing has not been as fruitful as I’d hoped. I haven’t fallen in love with any of their music so far. It feels overly trendy rather than trendsetting, and often lacks the great melodies that powered Shinsadong Tiger’s classic singles.
New song We Are Young takes the group in more of a pop rock direction. Their teasers promised something retro, and I suppose pieces of this may hearken back to the early 00’s. But, the production is too busy to really capture that era. As with many modern K-pop tracks, the instrumental would benefit from removing half of its percussive elements – especially those irritating hi-hats.
Other than that, We Are Young is inoffensive enough. The sing-song melody is catchy but trite, and the entire song circles itself without building toward any obvious peaks. I like its punchy energy – especially that punctuated finale on each chorus. And, the group manages to inject a second verse rap break without completely stalling momentum. But, if I mentally fast forward to the end of 2023 I don’t think I’ll remember this song at all. There’s something inconsequential about it – like it doesn’t fully commit to what it wants to deliver. It feels like a stopgap instead of an evolution, and I’d really like to seen TR.IBE kick things up a notch to carve out their own place in the industry.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
Grade: C+
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
After so many years of wishing girl groups wouldn’t sing so high and chirpy, we get this one which in a decidedly lower range. And now I wish that this song range would be up a few notches. They hit the low notes, but there is no color in their voices down there. It just comes out as a fako affected deep voice, and not in a good way.
It ladens down what should otherwise be a fun song “We do what we wanna cause we are young yay ya yay” . It should have an overabundance of youthful energy, but instead it kind of plods along.
They should either lift the low sections up a third or fifth (or octave) in the same key while keeping the rest the same. And / or, speed it up, by a lot. 1.2x is about right. At that speed, the song is more in the Yena “Smiley” song fun territory, and that song was a helluvalot of fun, bottled energy.
Rating is about right.
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It reminds me of another S.Tiger produced song, Always by A.KOR https://youtu.be/7NfIwQ9n5WA
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Feels about right rating wise, I found it fine but not something I would come back to and I think a part of that is the instrumental and a part of that is the chorus. Definitely a huge improvement from Kiss tho which I couldn’t stand.
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Funnily enough, it seems like Tri.be is filling the hole left by Weeekly after Ven Para.
On one hand, Tri.be’s releases have been pretty consistent– you know what a Tri.be track sounds like. On the other hand, their sound is a couple years out of date, and switching to the Weeekly sound could be smart for them.
Anyway, this song is just Bubble Pop (Hyuna) minus the dubstep.
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I won’t be petty about how much I like this song. During the first listen, I didn’t feel very excited in the first part but by the end I knew that it would have a significant level of recall.
It lifts my spirits and at the same time makes me nostalgic because I’m about to turn 30 and I’m in a “I’m young, but not that young” crisis… the song just came at the right time to enchant me.
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