Stray Kids have a tour and a new album coming up, and to promote both they’ve released a special single that serves as an anthem for this era. Run It arrives with little promo other than an excellent teaser video that made me think it might be the best Stray Kids track since Miroh. That’s a lofty expectation and I really should know better than to set it, especially since I haven’t clicked with their music in some time.
Run It is definitely my favorite Stray Kids single in awhile, but that’s not saying much. I’m pleased to hear them take a more anthemic approach rather than the gimmicky, catchphrasey mode they’ve been mired in. The song’s worldly production has a ‘made for global stadiums’ vibe that feels appropriate for these World Cup times. Of course, this is meant as an anthem for the group’s tour… not a sporting event. Bombastic brass battles it out with thundering percussion for a theatrical arrangement. Run It is at its best when it gives in to these excesses, upping the tempo and widening its scope. I like the chorus quite a bit, even if it feels like a sanitized version of itself.
Sadly, there are multiple choices that make Run It feel smaller than it should. Vocal effects soften the sung portions of the track, removing urgency and contrasting awkwardly with the fiery instrumental. The climactic rap during the song’s finale is a far better use of the group’s skills. Trap percussion occasionally cheapens what should be a powerful beat (let’s get some timpani in there instead!) and much of the instrumentation feels canned rather than organically explosive. A second verse rap break threatens to derail momentum at the most predictable time, further tempering the song’s effect.
Even with these reservations, I’m a sucker for this style and it’s nice to hear Stray Kids attempt something with bigger musical scope. This ambition extends to Run It‘s length, which is well over three minutes. This allows the track to grow and change without constraint. I bet a fully live, symphony-backed version would be awesome. Too often, this studio version feels like an iPhone video begging for the big screen and a better sound system.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
Grade: B
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
as a stray kids stan its their best ever and you say otherwise you’re wrong grrrrr 10/10 they can do no wrong 😀
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ok bias aside its like an 8.5/10. I like it but it could have been more bombastic if anything and its the main issue.
The rap at the end tho was amazing. finally something that panders towards their skills instead of being basic
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You’re valid. Sorry this is off-topic. The word is spelled ultimate. I think about this every time I see your username. If it’s a purposeful misspelling then forget I said anything. But at this point I think I have to bring it up, it feels like I’m not telling someone they have something in their teeth. 🙏🙏🙏
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👁️👁️
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nah they have had plenty of misses but this one is amazing, precisely as it does not sound like their jarring signature sound
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Stray Kids can still make good music when they want to.
Still, the soul is missing from songs like Hellevator and MIROH.
Same rating.
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Def the best song I’ve heard from them, and from K-pop as a whole, in a while.
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I love them so I’m totally biased but considering this song is out to usher in a world tour, it’s anthemic quality is completely appropriate and I think live, this will be a standout moment in any concert or awards show. It gets me very excited to see the vision of the whole album if this is where we are starting.
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Finally a nice song piece from Stray Kids. Despite their rising fame, have not been a fan of their recent offerings as it leaned too heavily into either noise-type music or rap-focused song, so it is nice to finally heard a bombastic anthem from them. I do not mind the rap at the end as it is executed nicely, but its not exactly a perfect ending for this kind of song where people expected an explosion at the end, not a muted finish. A good song for summer and stadium anthem nevertheless
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that same adrenaline rush i get when hearing the rap pre-choruses in miroh showed up in the finale and i smiled.
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Omg i love this. Way better than ceremony . The chorus is probably my favourite bit about the song. And the choreography is a mix of maybe side effects and la la la. The rap at the end of the song with Changbin and Han is very different to what they usually do but with that being said it works amazingly
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If they’ve abandoned the dry, shrill, gimmicky central hook, they should also go all the way and tone down the overused trap elements in the second verse. HyunLix should get a rap section similar to BinSung’s part at the end of the song. My rating is definitely an 8.75. Since I didn’t expect much, I was pleasantly surprised. The chorus fell a little short of my expectations, but I believe the melody will grow on me a lot after a few more listens.
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While the autotune feels a bit heavy-handed at times, the grand pre-chorus and chorus make this track incredibly memorable. I absolutely love how anthemic it feels, carrying an uplifting energy reminiscent of a World Cup theme song. Even though the production gets a little unusual and sparse in certain places, every time the chorus comes back around, a genuine sense of hope and perseverance shines through.
While some of Stray Kids’ more recent releases haven’t resonated with me as strongly, this particular track feels incredibly powerful. It stands as a very impressive release on its own and might even hint at something even grander and more epic for their official return.
Final Rating: High 8
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I mirror same thoughts as others: Best SK song in some time, anthemic style a good fit, nice melody, too soft on delivery. 8
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You pretty much said exactly what I was thinking: it sounds like World Cup music. Unfortunately that is a genre that I despise, so this one was unlikely to click for me from jump. I hate corporate fake-inspirational music, it’s corny… even the video was corny to me I’m sorry to say.
And, like you, I was turned off by the vocal effects/autotune, but really enjoyed the rap at the end, maybe in part because there were no vocal effects on it.
As soon as Chan started singing in the opening I started imagining what it would be like to hear the song without the autotune… oh well.
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But maybe the autotune is a marketing trick to get you to see the live show….? Are they geniuses at JYP? LOL
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genuinely sounds like something someone from jyp would say👁️👁️ im onto you🤣
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I like it a lot! Definitely one for concerts, not so sure about every day consumption though. I love the running time and the outro. I like that they are chanting instead of shouting, for a change😬. I’m not a super Stray Kids fan, but it’s songs like this one (a bit different from their usual stuff) that draws me to them once in a while.
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SKZ in their ATEEZ Treasure Era. I welcome it.
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Oh, thank God. Stray Kids abruptly remembered they know how to make good songs again. Thank God.
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I’d give it an 8.75 just for the ending alone. Genuinely nearly shed a tear. I pray they continue making good music if they do I’ll cry for sure.
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I liked this song, though I also would have preferred timpani instead of trap percussion like you said. I can’t wait for the rest of the album!
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This song is great, but would have been greater if they didn’t use so much autotune (they don’t need it!). This song was meant to be sung live, so why aren’t the vocals more raw in the song? 😭
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Sounds like a stadium song and it’s perfectly fine.
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The comments section feels noticeably less animated than the overwhelmingly enthusiastic reactions these songs of endless shouting and screaming tend to receive. Hopefully, this era of incessant screaming, abrupt chants, and flimsy, uninspired instrumentation, all lacking a solid foundation and any real sense of momentum, will finally come to an end.
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OK, this song did something I thought very unlikely post-S-Class: it made me excited for more Stray Kids music.
MIROH was my first proper KPop fave, a song that guaranteed to put a smile on my face. When the guys performed it in Paris in 2023, I sang along so loudly I busted my voice for the next few days xD But, ever since S-Class, I’ve felt my interest in the group fading. Every song seemed to be the same: braggadocio, interesting production choices, and ultimately what we’d heard from them before. I just couldn’t “buy” it, for lack of a better term. I realized in retrospect that what made MIROH work for me was plain ol’ earnestness most of all (plus the rap verses) – in my mind, it’s a song about talented underdogs standing out, embracing their identity/status with (just the right amount of!) confidence and tackling the future head-on. And – for me at least, YMMV – Run It captures the evolved (“grown up?”) version of that earnestness perfectly.
Run It is not humble, but it is tactically restrained, slowing down/stepping back at key points to allow itself (and the audience) room to breathe. I disagree with Nick here: those moments of restraint (in the post-chorus, in the softer, smoother, more romantic chorus than in many of their songs, in the focused and calm bridge that perfectly utilizes Lee Know for once)… Well, they do the same thing for the song that the post-intro-&-first-chorus section does for MIROH. Each one is a moment of rest that doesn’t sap the overall energy and progress; as a result, the entire song just builds, even across sections where the tempo slows down. The icing on the cake, tho, is the one-two punch that is the Han/Changbin outro. Without it, Run It would be just a very good stadium song. With it, it’s an anthem.
Dunno about the rest of you, but, as an older (mid-thirties), male fan of the genre – who has only been a fan for the last like 5 years at that – periods where I just relisten to old stuff now far outweigh those where I actively search for new songs to add to the playlists. Every so often though, a song (or a few) will break through and make me interested in seeing what else is out there nowadays. I’m very interested to see what the album brings; I doubt that the title is gonna be nearly as good/interesting to me as this, but even so, it’s way more than I thought I’d be saying/feeling in a runup to another Stray Kids project.
(oh, and: +1 for a version with some sort of lush orchestration, would love to hear that. And an Atmos mix, too.)
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At first, I felt a slight awkwardness between the sections, but that feeling faded after a while. Putting the autotune issue aside, I don’t think this song should be ranked alongside S-Class, Mountains, or even Maniac. It’s much better!
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After S-CLASS which is a 2020s masterpiece only stepping on Back Door’s area by a bit. I think this seals the SKZ’ trifecta for this decade. In the 2010s, they had My Pace, Voices and MIROH as the trifecta. It’s nice seeing SKZ return to form, yes the sincerity is quite shy but the attempt at actually finding their true base is very hopeful to see. 9/10.
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I think for arena-filling concert hype song, its pretty good. That said, I too want to hear a fully symphonic version with real brass and major percussion. Or a marching band version. Or a traditional Korean instrument with lots of drums version. Any version but this currently released production version.
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The rap section should have been the song. It was outstanding, and SK really need to lean into the power of Han/CB more. The magic of that combination is undeniable.
I also agree that the vocal production overall is poor. There does not seem to be enough consideration given to how the vocals are recorded and processed.
The signal processing, including heavy compression, EQ, auto-tune, reverb and other processing, seems to introduce artefacts and degrade the audio. If the source recording already contains sibilance, that processing can also make the sibilance more pronounced. I find it quite fatiguing to listen to, and this seems to be an ongoing theme in most of their recent releases.
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