Review | K-pop’s Red Velvet reign triumphant with Queendom, the girl group’s long-awaited sixth EP
- Queendom, the K-pop girl group’s sixth EP, arrives more than a year after their last album, December 2019’s Psycho
- The lead track of the same name blends the group’s pop song musicality with lusher synth styling, while songs like Pushin’ N Pullin’ reveal a velvety, R&B side
“Shall we start again?” asks Red Velvet in their latest single Queendom, which dropped on August 16.
Queendom, which serves as the lead track and shares a name with the title of their sixth EP, arrives more than a year after the K-pop girl group’s last album, December 2019’s Psycho.
Since then, they’ve faced ups and downs, including member Wendy suffering a serious injury after a stage accident, and solo and group projects from the members. Fittingly, the new music feels a bit like a comforting, cosy homecoming after a time of chaos for the world and the band.
Both Queendom the song and the album feel very familiarly Red Velvet while adding another new element to their discography. The team has always vacillated between girlishness and maturity, balancing their upbeat “red” and smooth “velvet” sides, and this release is the epitome of that.
For the single, Red Velvet blended their bright, bubbly pop song of summer musicality with their lusher synth styling, balancing a catchy, magical spell-like chorus (“That’s our queendom yeah/Ladida-do Ba-badida”) with slinky, empowering verses that bounce between the members’ tonality, and is a welcome return to Wendy’s power vocals.
