After a protracted eight months of waiting for a comeback from Red Velvet, they finally introduce themselves as “Spring Queens” in their 11th mini-album titled, The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm. After their fame skyrocketed in 2016 for their fusion of horrifying concepts with cute and bubbly pop sounds, they continue this unique style and once again create pure pop bliss on the new album. Through a variety of 6 tracks, Red Velvet travels from R&B ballad to retro-pop and many more in the middle.

The review is based on the opinion of the writer and does not reflect the thoughts of Team Genius Korea or Genius Media Group Inc.

TITLE TRACK: “Feel My Rhythm”

Welcoming the listener into a whole new universe of dark-yet-elegant visuals, “Feel My Rhythm” is a trap R&B ballad song that speaks out to listeners to follow their dreams, and their life will go up on the path of their rhythm. The aftermentioned genres hook the listener in, with a fusion of vocals and raps. It follows Red Velvet’s method of catchy lines that could keep repeating in your mind or lines that you will forever remember. This track was written by Seo Ji Eum (서지음) as well. “Feel The Rhythm” features the classic arrangement “Air on the G String” by Johann Sebastian Bach from 1871, creating a classical crossover song, rarely heard in K-Pop.

Music Video

The official music video for this title track serves to portray its horrifying concept in a very sophisticated way, which may also feel messy or confuse viewers with its intriguing visuals. “Feel My Rhythm” is marked as a scary concept that hides inside of an elegant party and set. In general, the music video showcases the unique visuals of each member and captures the girls' darkness that’s also connected to a bright joyful set in a blooming garden.

Surprisingly, the music video hides uses many vintage paintings as inspirations. These paintings are, Nymphs finding the Head of Orpheus, Ophelia, and The Swing. Joy, Wendy, and Yeri act as each character in the first painting, as Joy lays in the river water while the others sit on the edge of rocks finding Joy’s head and laid hands as well as Irene showcasing “The Swing” by happily swinging with a preppy dress.

The choreography contains ballet-influenced movements, showcased in the beginning of the song and the girls make multiple hand-gestures that could possibly involve influence from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9At2ICm4LQ

B-SIDES

”Rainbow Halo"

“Rainbow Halo” makes you taste the rainbow as Red Velvet sings about their lover being the cherry on the top, but instead of a cherry, they represent a joyful rainbow halo floating above their head as a piece together. This is sung in a background of light electronic pop. This hooks the listener more and more during the 3 minutes of a dynamic dance-pop that focuses on the girl’s potential in vocals.

Personally, I enjoy this track because of its chill electronic bubbly-pop production and its combination with a groove on the post-chorus adding flavor to the song, which truly makes this song stand out from most of Red Velvet’s other tracks. This song will get you up to do the “Rainbow dance” while listening for sure.

”Beg For Me”

Happily introducing itself as the third track of the mini-album, “Beg For Me” welcomes itself as a powerful pop song that is an anthem about finally speaking out in an unhealthy relationship that results in you being the one who puts in all the work. The song showcases the outstanding raps that all members focus on. A rap line or verse was highly-anticipated by main vocalist, Wendy and she pleasantly surprises everyone.

The song’s beat really combines with the attitude of the girls as they boast off in the track and bring out the energy in the chorus. Although modern-pop songs with raps are something common, Red Velvet’s delivery manages to add more to a simple beat you would find in a song nowadays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ErVPtN-oas

”BAMBOLEO”

“BAMBOLEO” will get you up to “Bamboleo” your body to this synth disco-pop song. Lyrically, the song describes dancing through the never-ending night as if it was their last moment together and to enjoy it as much as they can within the freedom they have. “Bamboleo” means sway, or swing in Spanish, which fits in the lyrics Cha Yubin) has written for the song. The song’s city pop fuses with the girls high soprano vocals showcased in the chorus.

The song could possibly serve as a title track for the album, the song helps mentally calm down any listener with the dreamy vocals sung in the song. This has to be one of my personal favorite b-sides from Red Velvet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnZXbDZEaK4&list=RDpnZXbDZEaK4&start_radio=1&rv=pnZXbDZEaK4&t=207

”Good, Bad, Ugly”

Following an elegant catchy rhythm, “Good, Bad, Ugly” is the fifth track on the album. The song is a slow-burning R&B pop track that is lyrically about how all the good and bad adjectives are fine with the girls due to a variety of selections of descriptions they can get from themselves. They compare themselves to a chocolate box, like a chocolate box can contain multiple-flavored sweets that can taste disgusting, yummy, ok, and anything that they find to their appeal.

In my opinion, getting all the different sides of you from good to ugly can be found attractive knowing that you’re different from others, and you don’t need to love yourself for not fitting a stereotype or for not being “good” or “pretty”. The song can easily fit as a meditation song to not only meditate to but also listen to if anything nerve-wracking may come your way.

”In My Dreams”

As a personal favorite from all the members of Red Velvet, “In My Dreams” is a Korean ballad pop song that relates to “Feel My Rhythm,” but is released as more of a dreamy song. The song tells the story of feelings someone has for a person that appears in their dreams, so once their dreams end, they’re willing to go back into that dream just to meet them once again. This can relate to the average person as everyone has once had a dream that they’ve wanted to come back to.

You can truly see why the girls find this song so amazing when not only realizing the talent and hard work taken into this song is reasonable, but the song’s dreamy-yet-sweet meaning goes right with the song’s ballad electronic-pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEebbF-hAo

The ReVe Festival 2022 -- Feel My Rhythm

In the end, we followed the path of rhythm that will lead us to a worthy result. In The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm, we got to see a new Red Velvet that’s willing to take chances in new genres and concepts, growing as artists. We also get to see Red Velvet stepping into their 8th year and establishing themselves as senior artists whose success in music-making is unparalleled. Starting from “Happiness” to “Feel My Rhythm”. The girls chose to grow strong together, fighting off all the hate they’ve gotten, they still continue on their career within a secure, and inspiring album. The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm, is an album consisting of six tracks, to get you in a good mood every day from here on out.

Genius Rating: 4.5/5

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