ATE

The record

ATE is the mini album Stray Kids released on 19 July 2024, with eight tracks. The title track is ‘Chk Chk Boom’. It follows 樂-STAR (ROCK-STAR) by eight months.

The album introduction on Bugs says the title carries the group’s declaration that they will eat up the music market that summer. The same text describes the title track as laying an addictive loop and a languid top line over a Latin-leaning hip-hop rhythm, with lyrics that carry the group’s confidence, and says the in-house production team 3RACHA completed every track while Felix took part in writing and composing ‘Runners’.

Reviews

Billboard’s Jeff Benjamin ranked the eight tracks eleven days after release. He wrote that the group had delivered “something genuine and fresh for the Stray Kids brand”, and that the mini album, helmed mainly by 3RACHA, “serves a smorgasbord of sonic flavors that expand Stray Kids’ musical palette”. Through the changes of style, he wrote, “Stray Kids ultimate message of representing underdogs is never lost”, and pointed at the closing track as the reason.

The same title named the record among its best K-pop albums of the year. Andrew Unterberger wrote that “Stray Kids’ fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in under three years presents the octet succeeding in an impressive variety of styles”, and that “the growling rap-rock of album opener ‘Mountains’ and near-reggaetón thunderousness of hit single ‘Chk Chk Boom’ make for a bombastic one-two opening”.

IZM’s Jeong Gi-yeop opened with the line that this is “an album that holds Stray Kids’ confidence and only their present”. He wrote that using a title whose sound matches the number of members “presses their spirited ambition in from the very start”, and that “from a title that speaks of having overeaten on victory, the character is distinct”.

Among the tracks

Of the title track Jeong wrote that it “gives out a fierce appeal, or emphasises the melody with a distinct timbre, or repeats the chorus cleverly, expressing each member’s abilities fully and in many colours”, and that “Changbin’s rolled-tongue rap also blows in a taste of its own, like the sachet of soup that comes on the side”. He called it “the birth of the most accessible Stray Kids song since ‘Case 143’”. Benjamin called the same song “the standout track from ATE”, writing that its Latin influences are “a true showcase of the group’s ability to be extremely versatile musically while remaining on message as the musicians they were from the start”, and noting that the Spanish word lobos recalls the group’s own 2021 comparison of themselves to a wolf pack.

Of ‘JJAM’ Jeong wrote that it is “an option for those who will have missed the old heat” and that it “is excellent too”, and that “in the playful variation that suits its funny turn of phrase, the practised hand of the self-producing team 3RACHA shows well”. Benjamin introduced the same track as “a high-energy hip-hop track that embodies the group’s signature sound”, and pointed at the moment Seungmin and I.N harmonise to close the second verse.

‘twilight’ is written by Han alone. Jeong wrote that “‘twilight’, which overturns the mood after that, is a hidden gem”, and that it “mixes calm rap and vocals in the right measure, taking away the tedium of R&B and adding their own softer side”. Benjamin called it “perhaps the most unexpected track” on the record, blending jazz and bossa nova for “a soothing contrast to what’s typically expected from Stray Kids”. Unterberger wrote that the song “marinates on a low-key piano shuffle”.

Of the closing track ‘Stray Kids’ Benjamin wrote that it is “a bold, special declaration”, and that its references to ‘Hellevator’, ‘Miroh’ and ‘Lonely St.’ make “a song with a vibrant tapestry of K-pop history”. Unterberger wrote that the group’s self-titled anthem carries “one of the year’s best sing-along choruses”.

Numbers

The Korea Herald reported that the album entered the Billboard 200 dated 3 August 2024 at number one with 232,000 equivalent album units in the United States, and that it was the first time K-pop albums had taken both the first and second places on that chart in the same week. By the same report it was the group’s fifth consecutive number one and had the largest first week of any K-pop album released that year. The same title later reported that the title track reached number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, the group’s best placing at the time.