If you wanna be my bias, you gotta stan all my friends…
[Video]
[5.56]
Michael Hong: As far as concept and sound, Itzy stepped onto the scene fully-formed, five girls declaring loudly declaring their individuality through joyfully rapped hooks and ad-libs, all over some of the most interesting instrumentals of the genre. Their sound was so popular that LOONA’s latest title track was often bemoaned to be a lifeless version of an Itzy track (the instrumental that precedes it manages to rip the melody of “Dalla Dalla”). So for everyone who bemoaned LOONA’s lack of originality, Itzy have thrown an even duller version of their own sound into the mix. “Wannabe” removes what made the group so charming — their emphasis on individuality without comparison to others and the stacked hooks — leaving a pretty stiff and uninspired version of their sound that lacks their former colourful personality.
[4]
Joshua Lu: Itzy’s schtick of self-empowerment via bratty bops has finally hit its limit. Their previous singles managed to make obnoxiousness enjoyable, and while “Wannabe” has general catchiness and spunk, the whole act feels perfunctory and forced on this third go-around. Being able to see past this fun veneer and into how market-tested it all feels brings down the entire song; the dubstep elements feel noisy and obvious, and the “I wanna be me, me, me” chant is hollow and limp. It’z time to switch it up.
[4]
Alfred Soto: A couple bass sounds show a sonic familiarity with Dua Lipa’s current practices, and “Wannabe” stays fresh and frantic (is that “freshly frantic”?) — are those guitars in the chorus?
[7]
Katie Gill: I kind of wish this was worse? I mean, I adore “Dalla Dalla” and “Icy” because those songs are absolutely obnoxious. There are traces of that in “Wannabe” (that bounce behind the first verse is awful, I love it). But this song never reaches the bratty, obnoxious heights that their first two songs did. The chorus especially is disappointingly safe. Still, this is a catchyass song, perfect for jumping around the room and singing into your hairbrush, so I can’t dock it TOO many points.
[7]
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Giddy, propulsive, and domineering in the best way possible: Meghan Trainor, I hope you’re taking notes somewhere!
[7]
Kylo Nocom: Remember “Loonatic?” That, except even closer to the kitchen-sink approach of Art Angels. At the expense of anything sounding good and with the same lyrical approach they’ve had for their past title tracks, sure, but it’s interesting for a minute!
[3]
David Moore: The unfashionable mid-aughts pastiche here — the introductory winding of a music box, fake guitars, someone yelling “Action!” in the background at some point — at least has an appealing wax museum quality to it.
[5]
Alex Clifton: Much like “Dalla Dalla” before it (which, in retrospect, I underrated) we have multiple stylistic shifts that somehow fit together, although I don’t know how the producers got them to fit. Blackpink tried to do something similar with “Kill This Love” but Itzy succeeds where Blackpink stumbled. The chorus has a rush of energy to it and forces the song (and the listener) forward, while “Kill This Love” had a non-chorus that dampened the entire song. K-pop over the past year has trended towards mixing disparate styles, which some have been able to pull off successfully while others have succumbed to the weight of the production. Itzy, however, makes it all look so dang easy.
[7]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: An overwhelmingly bright and shiny object of a beat, with a limp lyric on self-confidence tacked onto it almost as afterthought. They could be singing about anything and it’d still be fun.
[6]