It’s been one step forward, two steps back with ATEEZ lately. After a promising 2025, a pair of early-2026 tracks succumbed to some of the group’s most frustrating instincts. That slump continues with new title track Bad, which lives up to its name.
I mean, this review almost writes itself, right? Replace the “she’s” in Bad‘s chorus with “it’s” and you’ve got an apt hook for this track: “it’s so bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.” I wonder if Bad would be more charming if we hadn’t already heard a million of these phonk-influenced K-pop songs over the past few years. I see a reality where this works as some silly novelty track. We’re not meant to take it seriously, right? But in a year of Boompalas, and It’s Mes and Acais and Sh-sh-sugar highs I’d really love the chance to appreciate a K-pop song in a more serious way again. There’s a point where this “ironic” fun stops being fun at all and starts feeling like an exhausting marketing ploy that cares little about constructing music that might appeal longer than a week or two.
The sad thing is, Bad slowly grows into a more dynamic piece as the production fleshes out for its finale. A monotone repetition of “bad bad bad bad” will never be my idea of a great chorus, but as long as the production compensates for a lousy hook (see: RIIZE’s recent grower), I can at least ignore a song’s shortcomings. Bad‘s first two minutes are hopelessly dull before the instrumental stops spinning its wheels and actually does something. The structure of Bad‘s hook gains new life here as well, making me wonder why this energy couldn’t have driven an entire song.
| Hooks | 5 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 6 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6 |
Grade: D-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Uhhh, idk how to feel about this one.
The production’s decent, nothing too innovative, but the actual song… man, the performance is so affected and the pronounciation of “bad” in the chorus is an earworm (in a neutral way) at best, gimmicky and annoying at worst. Sigh, their worst since Bouncy, and looks like KQ is really struggling with their music so far this year.
Rating’s the same and I smelled it from a mile away lol
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Also, can we ever find an actual good Baile funk song? C’mon kpop, utilize the groove, give us some groovy catchy hooks and melodies for once!
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Also, it amuses me how recent KQ title tracks (OKay and Bad) really lived up to their names. Hope one of them names their upcoming title track “Banger” and the song is, well, an actual banger!
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Well it’s just as i expected it to be. I hate it. I already hated it from the preview even as an Atiny myself
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now I WISH we went for the mean girls concept instead of…phonk throwaway song #41968.
props to them for self awareness I guess
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Yeah I agree with everything you just said, you should check out Mamacita, I actually liked that one.
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The song already turned me off from the start. Starting off the song with rap shooting left & right just did not work for me. The beat and production were actually kind of nice with phonk elements mixed in, but the song never went anywhere so it felt exhausting to listen to. The hook was definitely BAD, not catchy or silly at all. Boompala or Its Me at least had its fun moment and Adrenaline had its energy to rely on, but BAD had no enjoyable listening experience at all. The reason they chose this material as title track was really beyond me.
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