After LIKE

The record

After LIKE is IVE’s third single album, released on 22 August 2022 — the third release of their first year, after ELEVEN and LOVE DIVE. It carries two tracks, ‘After LIKE’ and ‘My Satisfaction’. Starship Entertainment’s album introduction on Bugs credits the production of ‘After LIKE’ to RYAN JHUN and the rap writing to Rei, and the same text says the song interpolates part of ‘I Will Survive’.

Reviews

IZM’s Jung Su-min summed up the appeal of the two singles before it as “a freshness and a polish that break away from the main currents of K-pop right now, retro and girl crush”, then wrote that “the first impression of ‘After like’ is likewise a departure”. Jung wrote that “the four-four house rhythm early in the song runs into a chorus that samples Gloria Gaynor’s disco standard ‘I will survive’, and the vocals and raps laid out without a breath are taken from the K-pop of the early 2010s, the kind that recalls Nine Muses and Infinite”, and noted that the song “reflects what is inside and outside K-pop actively, unlike the earlier records that worked out a method of their own”. Jung added that “the wild, high-handed attitude of the lyrics that girl groups rarely take on, the self-love that comes through in it and the clear melody — the identity of their own is still in force”.

Mano, writing for the K-pop criticism webzine Idology in the August 2022 issue of Monthly, its short-notice column on new releases, wrote that “the melody, full of life, catches the listener in a way that is direct without being obvious, and the orchestration that rings out brightly is added to it, leaving a strong impression that will not rub off”. Mano called the track “a retro close to what people call ‘ppongki’, but, if a comparison must be made, one refined into the manner of K-pop’s fourth generation”, and wrote that in a saturated K-pop scene a song that leaves a clear impression on one listen is hard to come by, and that IVE had done it three records running. The sentence Mano closed with is this: “A rousing blow that drives an undeniable wedge into the group’s irresistible rise.”

NME’s Carmen Chin ran a track review three days after release. She wrote that “on the new record, IVE continue to weave the rich tapestry of textured electronic instrumentation they’ve established in their first two comebacks, this time applying it to a nu-disco sound on its title track”, and that “what makes ‘After LIKE’ stand out from the other players in this field of retrofuturism is its generous sampling of Gloria Gaynor’s iconic 1978 hit ‘I Will Survive’, a song widely considered to have marked the beginning of the disco era”.

Among the tracks

‘After LIKE’ is the track all three outlets read through that sample. Chin wrote that IVE “further texturise ‘I Will Survive’’s signature flurry of swelling strings with layers upon layers of feverish synthesisers and house flourishes”.

‘My Satisfaction’ is the second track NME took up on its own. Chin wrote that “IVE continue their nu-disco streak with B-side dance pop track ‘My Satisfaction’, although it takes a darker, more sultry approach”, and that “after two comebacks of songs following a similar template of trademark tempo and style variations, ‘My Satisfaction’ is the song that has deviated the most from IVE’s signature vibe so far”.

What came after

The music video went up on the label’s official STARSHIP channel the same day. The pre-release single ‘Kitsch’ followed in March the next year, and the first full-length album I’ve IVE in April.