BAD (Japanese Ver.)ATEEZ's fifth Japanese single, released on 29 July 2026 — the Japanese 'BAD' with two new songs, 'Seeker' and 'Higher'. Idology wrote about the original.
BAD (Japanese Ver.) is the fifth Japanese single ATEEZ released, on 29 July 2026. The title song is ‘BAD’, the title track of GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5 from a month earlier, sung in Japanese, and it comes with two new Japanese songs, ‘Seeker’ and ‘Higher’. ATEEZ JAPAN’s own release notice says the disc carries six tracks in all, the three songs and an instrumental of each.
The same notice says Universal Music Japan issued the single in a fan-club edition, first-press editions A and B, a standard edition, a first flash-price edition and eight solo editions, one for each member. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that a showcase was held in Tokyo on 28 July, the day before release.
In place of a review of the single itself, what follows are two reviews of the title track’s original. Both are written about GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, the record that carries it.
Idology (아이돌로지), the idol-pop webzine, ran a note by Yemi in ‘Monthly : 2026년 6월’, dated 10 July 2026. Yemi wrote: “‘BAD’, the opening track, which takes Brazilian funk, reproduces the danceability particular to the genre at high purity in the members’ voices, over a minimal arrangement of percussion left unshaved, voice samples and a synth added in places.” The same note points out that the song uses descending lines in the melody often and works with the Phrygian dominant scale, and that its words carry “a quantity of Spanish ad-libs unusual for K-pop”.
On how the group used Latin pop on stage, Yemi wrote that “what looks more important than anything is that the heat of Latin pop, connected to the energy particular to ATEEZ, brings the team’s physical strengths strongly to the fore.”
Debashree Dutta of Rolling Stone India wrote about the same song on 29 June 2026. She writes that it is “built around a heavy bassline and a blend of Brazilian funk and Latin phonk”, and “keeps its production relatively minimal, letting the group’s strong vocals shine while setting the stage for the album’s other songs”.
The title track is the Japanese version of ‘BAD’, as Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Its music video went up on KQ Entertainment’s official channel on 28 July 2026, the day before release, and is a different film from the original’s.
‘Seeker’ and ‘Higher’ are new Japanese songs written for this single. ATEEZ JAPAN’s notice lists them as tracks and adds no description of either.
Japan is a release line numbered separately from the group’s Korean records, and this is the fifth single on it. Star News reported that GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, which carries the original, entered the Billboard 200 at number one on the chart dated 5 July 2026 with a first week of 228,000 album units. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the Japanese version was announced after that week.
The single’s schedule and the Yokohama fan meeting are set out in ATEEZ in Japan, and the title track’s genre and its relation to the Japanese version in What ATEEZ’s ‘BAD’ Is.
Claims in this story link to official or primary sources.
'BAD' is the title track of ATEEZ's fourteenth mini album GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, released 26 June 2026 and described by Korea Herald as a Brazilian funk-inspired dance track. A remix relay and a Japanese-language version, out 29 July 2026, followed.
ATEEZ released its fifth Japanese single on 29 July 2026, led by a Japanese-language 'Bad' and carrying six tracks. A Tokyo showcase came on 28 July, with the ATINY'S VOYAGE : TINY MYSTERY fan meeting in Seoul on 17 to 19 July and at K-Arena Yokohama on 4 to 6 August.
