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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Thanks for the rec, not too sure about the single yet but Love Me is definitely a standout!
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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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If CRAVITY stuck with phonk and built that techno backbone well, this would be a straight 9 to me. The song sounds like an 8 because the song’s production and composition limits itself from ascending higher, the song sounds muted than what that intro and the teasers suggested. I needed a full breakdown somewhere and the engineering on the techno instrumentation seems bare than I expected. This song borrows a lot from aespa’s Whiplash but it doesn’t deliver the impact. It’s like virtue signalling grandiose but its just that.
I know CRAVITY can deliver better than SET NET G0?! and no song still beats that from them. This song feels safe and I kind of don’t like that, it has all the elements of a successful dance track but it really doesn’t elevate one’s field of appreciating the song’s dark motifs. I do like this better than CYE’s release but I’m happy CRAVITY is at least not backing down from their generational run that started last year.
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That’s two for two from Cravity this year. I’m going to go out on a limb here though and say that Love Me from the album would have made an ever better title track.
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Excellent as usual with Cravity!!
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The song may not be anything unique as far as boygroups discography went, but the most important thing is the song feel complete and has a soul. The track has a solid identity and engaging story to tell the listeners. You can tell its being engineered for aural listening experience and not some sort of gimmick tune build for SNS virality. The whole album was very strong with many B-sides worth listening to, especially LOVE ME and Seize the Night.
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For some reason I mixed up cravity and verivery 😭 so when I read this post I wondered why you were reviewing cravity again :’D and didn’t question it and figured something must’ve been released later on like a repackage or something (which i only just now figured out was incorrect when i saw recent releases recommended for me on spotify)
Anyhow, my own stupidity aside, I’m really impressed with the album so far :)) (particularly love me and seize the night) im actively listening to this as i type, and im getting much more hopeful about kpop’s future already
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