Review

Song Review: ATEEZ – Ice On My Teeth

ATEEZ - Ice On My TeethATEEZ’s career has been divided neatly into series: Treasure, Fever, The World, and now Golden Hour. I’m sure hardcore fans will be able to identify sounds and storylines that make each series unique, but to the casual listener the group has retained many of its musical hallmarks across all these eras, favoring sonic bombast and hip-hop swag. New single Ice On My Teeth tilts toward the latter, further exploring the sounds found in this spring’s Work.

To be honest, the title “Ice On My Teeth” had me side-eyeing this song before it was even released. I’ve been quite vocal about how tired I’ve become of braggadocious, look-at-me, I’m so cool/rich/bad/whatever songs in K-pop. There’s nothing new left in the tank when it comes to this subject matter and it’s become a crutch for the industry. However, ATEEZ subvert expectations here by going quite subdued and bolstering the otherwise unremarkable trap beat with ornate strings embellishment. In many ways, this is a dramatic departure from the group’s singles run and that adventurousness is appreciated.

Songs of this style don’t always appeal to me and I’m unconvinced by Ice On My Teeth‘s silly centerpiece (we seriously need to dial back on English lyrics if they’re going to be this bad), but the track delivers a mood that’s more refined and engaging than their past few efforts. By dialing down their usual intensity, the listener is brought closer to the music. Beyond its symphonic elements, there’s not much about Ice that will keep me coming back for more, and I crave a stronger set of melodies and more colorful selection of rap verses. I can’t help but imagine what a pioneer like G-Dragon could have done on this track. Keeping with the spirit of the production, ATEEZ’s performance feels overly muted —  but boy is that instrumental a beauty.

Hooks 7
 Production 9
 Longevity 7
 Bias 8
 RATING 7.75

Grade: C+

33 thoughts on “Song Review: ATEEZ – Ice On My Teeth

  1. Dont care about the lyrics or overall quality just happy to finally see them doing something interesting in a title track again. Instrumental is the most interesting thing they’ve put out in a single in 2 years.

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  2. Finally listened to an Ateez album after 2 years because of this tt and I’m very underwhelmed compared to the treasure series. Deep Dive is an insane track that I absolutely adore but otherwise the album is dull.

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    • Take me Home and Cyberpunk were some of my favorite songs of their years and what keep me coming back to give their new releases a listen only to be disappointed each time. Agreed that Selfish Waltz is a standout though

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  3. I hope Golden Hour pt.2 is the last of this series because the music was just not it(more-so the title tracks).

    Sure,Ice On My Teeth will probably go viral because the chorus is somewhat..catchy?Overall,the chorus is pretty boring bit I didn’t really expect anything from it.The beat is outstanding though.

    It’s an 8 for me(7,9,8,8)

    Liked by 1 person

    • oh yes, I love the rhythm. As for the lyrics, I like “I bought diamonds at my dentist” but the rest is a bit of mangled English, but for all I know it could be common hip-hop parlance. It’s a tongue-in-cheek delivery. They seem to be having fun with the silliness – reminds me of Work in that way.

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        • A few people have said it’s about sex. I don’t get it. Maybe I need the in-your-face sexuality of In Your Fantasy lol. Still I’m curious what I’m missing. Is it super obvious? Is it something obvious to someone younger than me? In any case, Ice on Your Teeth and Work are a lot of fun.

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  4. It’s not like I awfully dislike this, but coming from the same group that gave us Answer, Inception, Wonderland, Eternal Sunshine, Wave and many more incredible, larger-than-life songs, their latest single run has felt so below their level.

    Liked by 3 people

  5. Fine, I will pull up the ranking list again. This one gets rock bottom last line “Well pronounced lousy lyrics” The arrangement is not the typical kpop, but the rest of the song is a pass.

    Kpop Lyrics in English ranking, in descending order, best to worst:

    Intelligible English good lyrics that rhyme

    Intelligible English good lyrics

    Unintelligible English of any quality lyrics

    Double entendres

    Mispronounced but decent lyrics

    A single lyric line that is so craptastic it is great

    Cringey but campy lyrics

    Cringey cringetastic lyrics

    Crappy Craptastic lyrics

    Single entendres

    Oh so bland lyrics

    Really, what does that mean lyrics

    But, um, I don’t think you know what that means lyrics

    A single word said over over like that will make it mean something lyric

    Well-pronounced lousy lyrics

    Liked by 6 people

    • Ooh yay! The Biaslist Commenters Official English Lyrics Ranking returns!

      I agree, although ‘You the one I’m tryna finish’ made me raise an eyebrow. It veers close to ‘I don’ t think you know what that means’, but its ATEEZ and Mingi says ‘Hit that booty’ at some point in the song, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they do know.

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  6. It’s an interesting song, much better than WORK. I enjoyed listening to it, and the music video is definitely a masterpiece. The best music video I watched this year. Every scene was brilliant.
    8.5/10 (8,9,8,9) for me.

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  7. Yeah, this is like the male version of Babymonster’s Clik Clak or MEOVV’s debut for me. And lyrically worse, since while those girls could conceivably be spending lots of money and shaking sum with their friends, these dudes are not going around Korea with grillz or diamond teeth. They need to stop squandering the vocal talent in this group on this nonsense!

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  8. This is like Chk Chk Boom’s across-the-border sister, where the production completely outshines the actual song components of the song.

    And ofc the Spanish is now English

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  9. Starting off with, I’m a huge fan of Ateez – I got into them in 2022 and enjoy them so much as individuals, a group, and performers. I enjoyed ‘Bouncy’ because seeing it live is so much fun – the whole crowd is engaged. ‘Crazy Form’ was fun! ‘Work’ was inoffensive/not bad.

    Before this title track was announced I was so anticipating something reminiscent of ‘Answer’/’Inception’/’Deja Vu’ – something that was about yearning and desire. They described this album and used the word “love” a lot so I was SO excited. When they released the track list and I was the producers and the title I just knew we were getting something braggadocious. That’s not always a bad thing but how many times can you sing about swag/money/being iced out before it’s boring (the answer is, not many) — so many groups are doing this and it’s become formulaic, repetitive, and uninspired. The instrumental was stunning as always and I love certain members got featured (another commenter mentioned this in regards to the rap lines!). I love Ateez and will continue to support them but I’m so hoping that we get something with substance and feels true to their ethos. I don’t need them to stick to a sound and never change it – I just want it to stand out. They speak so much about doing things differently than everyone else, but this doesn’t feel that different than everyone else. WITH THAT SAID ! The music video was GORGEOUS. Additionally, the b-sides are ABSOLUTELY the highlight of this album. ‘Selfish Waltz’ is beautiful and I truly hope they perform it live – dare I say it should’ve been the title track (a la ‘Cyberpunk’ and ‘Silver Light’ but I digress). I’m excited to see what they do next!

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  10. The new Ateez song Ice on My Teeth has a great instrumental, but I feel like the lyrics could use some improvement. The repetition and rhyming choices, like ‘tennis’ with ‘tennis,’ don’t feel very clever or engaging. Honestly, I’m enjoying the B-sides from the album a lot more, they feel more polished and meaningful.

    Liked by 2 people

  11. While ice on my teeth by ATEEZ didn’t wow me as much as their older title tracks I’m not surprised it’s already stuck in my head. It’s catchy, slightly cringey, artistic and well produced. A lot of comments are complaining about the English lyrics however, I don’t think the English lyrics are as bad as other groups. They make sense for the most part and there’s no random AAVE or TikTok slang thrown in for relevancy points. Its nothing mind blowing but it’s a good song overall.

    7/9/6/9

    7.75 for me as well

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