Review

Song Review: IVE – Baddie

Posted on by 43 Comments

IVE - BaddieIVE’s singles run has been pretty bulletproof so far, but the lead-up to their first EP has underwhelmed at every step. Starship Entertainment opted to promote three new tracks with music videos, which would be awesome if each one was on the level of an After Like or I Am. Instead, pre-releases Either Way and Off The Record felt overly muted, lacking the ambition that drives the group’s most compelling works. Title track Baddie disappoints in a different way, trading IVE’s towering pop sound for braggadocios bad girl tropes.

I get that this concept is trendy at the moment, but it’s ringing more hollow each time an idol act unveils their new iteration of “bad.” Baddie‘s sparse, strangely funky production holds potential, occasionally veering into weird, Timbaland-esque territory. It begs for a more interesting topline — something new and refreshing instead of the same old “I’m a baddie, baddie, baddie” proclamation. I wasn’t initially a fan of this spring’s Kitsch, but at least that song used an off-kilter word as its selling point.

Baddie‘s biggest issue is its monotony. The song doesn’t really go anywhere, relying too heavily on its sticky groove. The melodic pre-chorus could use more bite and the adlibs need to be doing something more than the requisite “na na na‘s” we’ve heard so many times before. I like when the rap interacts with the vocal harmonies towards the end of the track, creating a fuller texture. More details like this could have elevated Baddie into an offbeat highlight.

Hooks 7
 Production 8
 Longevity 8
 Bias 7
 RATING 7.5

Grade: C

43 thoughts on “Song Review: IVE – Baddie”

  2. I much prefer Kitsch to this.

    Massively disappointed by Baddie ans hopping it’ll be a real grower.

    Holy Moly is probably the stand out on the album, though I also really liked both of the pre-releases.

    Starship are fumbling the ball at -every- single turn. Laughably poor rollout and promotion, poor selection of songs and Gaeul, their main rapper, is hardly even in their rap-heavy title track…

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  3. Holy Moly is a much better track of this genre(?). it has ELEVEN’s tempo change (both were written at the same time) and would’ve felt like a more natural evolution musically.

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  4. I agree. Starship’s A&R really fumbled this round with mid-era tracks, especially disappointing considering IVE’s excellent string of refreshing pop hits. Each of IVE’s previous songs had flavor, punch, and individuality — but Baddie falls into this tired trope of noisy, yet empty confident talk-speak that haunts K-pop lately. It’s a miss in my book.

    P.S. – long time reader, first time commenter. It’s so wonderful to have someone like you with your taste critically and constructively reviewing K-pop from an experienced lens. I rush to your reviews after every release. Keep it up, you’re doing great sweetie 🙂

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  5. I personally like Off The Record but agree that this is not a great EP,
    Main reason is that IVE went from releasing 3 singles a year (or 2 if you think ELEVEN is from 2021!) to 7 (Including I want & WAVE). I believe this year by releasing a full album and a EP they are just trying to build their discography quickly to go on tour with a lot more songs.

    Definitely a case of quantity over quality.

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  7. The whole ep is definitely a disposable product in order to squeeze the most out of I Am / I’ve IVE in the shortest time. From an artistic point of view it’s a complete mess (there’s no single track which sounds at least decent), and the risk is that it could be a mess from a commercial point of view as well.
    Maybe we had to expect it was too good to be true.

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    • [Update]
      I just checked the first day sales, and this is (by far) their highest selling album. Once again in K-Pop, the least the effort, the worst the product and the best the result.
      And they’re actually right to believe they’re right.

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      • to be fair, many fans pre-order without having heard anything or hearing only the pre-release “title tracks”. plus, albums says in kpop especially these days is really about the success of the previous era and the loyalty of the fandom

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  9. i mean, it’s almost impossible to only have good songs.. i was a fan of off the record and eitherway was okay to me, but this one is a disappointment. i knew it would’ve been not my taste since i knew the title was gonna be baddie haha.. on another note, i kinda liked holy moly most out of the other 3 songs from the EP

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  11. Oh no IVE’s first Not Shy?(although I love that song to bits) Sad they had to nerf themselves and lose their streak with this song. I love the other 2 title tracks but this is too short. Some said this was NCT + Red Velvet-esque but they would have more interesting verses and better bridge. I wish they expanded on the verse before the 2nd chorus.

    IMHO the other 3 new tracks in the album(Holy Moly, OTT, Payback) are miles better than Baddie and deserves an MV. Baddie should have just been an album intro.

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    • This was so incredibly disappointing , i never expected IVE to let me down like this , it’s such a generic girlcrush / tough concept and it doesn’t fit the group at all

      Liked by 3 people

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  13. Probably the echoes of the previous songs are still resounding, so this song gets a 7.5. It deserves a flat 6. Btw, this time the group plans to sell the album to coffee shops instead of bars.

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. This should prompt a ranking of all songs with same titles. The nth Baddie I’m a Baddie I’m so Bad song. It does not improve on the others. Kpop trying to convince they are bad is highly suss. As if.

    I just watched the music show performance, and after declaring their badness, the performance concludes with with perfectly planned ending fairies.

    Liked by 4 people

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    • It’s so sus because you can clearly tell it’s all cap.

      At this point, it would be edgy for a group to come on stage and shout about how good they are and how they have no desire to break the rules, ever. Why does everyone want to be bad so badly?

      I guess this is not a new thing, being rebellious has always been a popular concept, but it feels like a very strong (yet very hollow) trend right now.

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  17. I hate everything about this so much. It’s beat isn’t dirty or heavy enough to justify its slow tempo, the tempo is too slow to compensate for the lack of rap ability in the group, the pre-chorus isn’t epic enough to compensate for the letdown of the beat drop in the chorus, the song as a whole is both too short to go anywhere but also overstays its welcome. The members don’t fit the concept – I always hate the whole “I’m so bad” concept in KPop when the industry is one that demands perfect behavior from all of its idols, but the members of Ive REALLY don’t even have the ability to sell the illusion of this concept. It feels like the song almost wants to be quirky (based on the music video) like some of Red Velvet’s more camp tracks, but it musically takes itself so seriously that it just becomes cringe and laughable. At least we still got I Am this year and some great B-Sides because OOF

    Liked by 4 people

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  20. Not to offer a really boomer take but: I blame tiktok at least partly for this. The whole song is bland and disappointing, but the chorus and the dance seem to be calibrated specifically for tiktok virality in the way a lot of 4th gen releases are but that ive had until now mostly avoided.

    I’ll also echo the repeated sentiment in the blog and the comment section that I am so over lyrical focus on how cool and badass you are. It’s always kind of grating, though some groups can pull it off with enough charisma and commitment and the correct vibe. Ive just doesn’t have the vibe for it! They’ve shone in their previous concept, so this pivot to something totally opposite makes no sense. Gah.

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  21. This is not my thing. This is my least favorite IVE song and its not particularly close. I’m all for experimenting and they seem to be having fun with the promotions so more power to them. But I ugh…. will probably never hear this song again. Not of my own accord at least.

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  23. the hyperpop schmaltz fan in me loves this. I think this one of those songs that is inextricably linked to its visuals, performance , choreography etc…
    On that front it’s pretty high level.
    I ate up “I AM” don’t get me wrong. my preferred style of music.
    But I will let this be a fun lil guilty pleasure for me.

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  25. This might just be me but I thought it was a really good concept change for I’ve while still being really catchy and I thought they did it very well and I love the styling

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  26. I like it (I’m not hard to please), but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it reminded me of something when I first heard this. I’m coming back here to leave a comment because I finally figured it out: Aespa’s Savage. The spoken word hook, the beats, and several of the production choices in general evoke the song so hard that it’s impossible for me to unhear it. I like both tracks, so it’s not a huge problem for me, but it certainly rocked my world when I finally noticed.

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