It’s been great fun to watch CRAVITY grow into their sound. While their first few years were very hit and miss, they’ve recently found a way to mature their output without falling into the traps and tropes that often come with “maturation” in K-pop. To put it bluntly, their music ain’t boring.
This statement is especially true with new single Louder, which is even stronger than its previews suggested. Highlight medleys and teasers had me ready for a cool (but empty) wordless chorus — the kind where a group lazily repeats a word or phrase over a dynamic beat drop. That turned out to be a red herring, as CRAVITY do exactly what I’ve been asking K-pop to do for months: they take a cool beat drop and actually sing over it. Yes, Louder feels like a song… not just a few fun ideas haphazardly strung together.
I can’t believe I’ve gotten to the point where I’m raving about a song doing the bare minimum of what a song should do, but it’s thrilling to hear Louder move from dynamic verse to dynamic pre-chorus to dynamic two-part chorus, all while the production maintains momentum and delivers a few fun surprises along the way. Louder may not be reinventing any wheels. Instead, it’s delivering a sturdiness we’ve been missing in this two-minute streaming economy. But even without all that context, Louder stands as a highlight for CRAVITY, breathlessly combining their specific charms into a taut, all-killer, no-filler track that pulls equally from various generations of K-pop.
| Hooks | 9 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 9 |
Grade: A-
Oh I love this one! It’s this massive burst of energy with a fantastic two-part chorus, being a great dance banger! I do feel like the energy kind of dies down in a few segments and lowkey ruins the momentum at times but when the energy is high, it is great!
Rating’s the same.
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So good
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Yep it’s damn good. I can see it growing but for now I’ll give it an 8.5.
We’ve got another AOTY contender here too 🥹 LOVE ME is probably my fave so far.
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With ONEUS’s “Say Yes!”, Verivery’s “Way to Zero”, SHINee’s “Atmos” and now this, I am excited with the fact that there is this new niche of cosmic “dreamlike” dance tracks reminiscent of WJSN that’s emerging out of the boygroup market. Hopefully TWS and RIIZE use this style for their upcoming comebacks.
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Nevermind, they don’t sound like WJSN nor do they sound like each other but I have noticed this atmospheric dense electronic sound that’s popping out from them. With ONEUS’s “Say Yes!”, it occurs in the second verse.
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Ngl I saw the rating 9 from Nick as I’m listening to the song, but somehow I feel something missing in the production. It still feel restrained and not that bold enough. An 8.75 for now.
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Phew, finally a new song to add to my playlists. It’s been almost a month.
Adding: best of all, it sounds like a Kpop song, like the Current gen does 2nd gen with the best of both sounds.
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I can see this growing on me on the future. There is a genuinely decent contrast hidden deep within the song, sjd while the production leaves me feeling a bit intrigued yet unsatisfied, it certainly has its moments.
8.25(8,8,8,9)
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