TEENFRESH

About

From the moment the breezy strings start on <i>TEENFRESH</i>’s opening track “Bubble,” it’s clear listeners are in for a mini-album that is confident, textured, and fun. <i>TEENFRESH</i> is K-pop girl group STAYC’s third EP, and it’s sonically in line with what has come before; that is because the “teenfresh” genre is not new for STAYC (or their fandom, known as SWITH). Sumin, Sieun, Isa, Seeun, Yoon, and J coined the portmanteau of “teenage” and “fresh” when they debuted back in 2020, as a way to refer to the crisp, playful sound of their music. As an EP, <i>TEENFRESH</i> is half incarnations of the song “Bubble,” including an English-language version and a sped-up, TikTok-ready English-language version. The B-sides—bass-led hip-hop track “Not Like You,” R&B-inspired standout “I Wanna Do,” and Y2K-nostalgic jam “Be Mine”—are just as assured, if not reaching quite the same level of summer earworm status. That’s intentional: STAYC is one of the stalwarts of fourth-generation K-pop for the ways in which they are able to flit between various go-to musical genres—from energetic bubblegum pop to vocally lush R&B to hook-driven hip-hop—within the broader industry with seeming ease. <i>TEENFRESH</i> is further proof from STAYC that, within K-pop, there can be just as much value in doing something well as in doing something new.

via Apple Music