★★★★★ (5-STAR)

The record

★★★★★ (5-STAR) is Stray Kids’s third full-length album, released on 2 June 2023 with twelve tracks. The title track is ‘S-Class’. It is the group’s first full-length album in about two years, after NOEASY of August 2021, and the mini album before it was MAXIDENT.

The album introduction on Bugs says the five stars put the superlative 5-STAR at the front of the record, and gives the theme of the title track as the group being the oddest of the odd and the brightest of the special. The same text says the in-house production team 3RACHA worked on all twelve tracks, and that the rapper Tiger JK features on ‘Topline’.

Reviews

NME’s Crystal Bell reviewed the record three days after release. She likened a first listen to arriving at a party already in full swing, and wrote that “once your senses adapt to the frenzy and your body syncs to the rhythm, you lose yourself in its luminescence”. She wrote that the group’s “biggest strength, however, has always been their willingness to experiment while staying true to their bespoke style”, and that the album “demonstrates this skillful balancing act through a stacked lineup of tracks that emphasize the size and scale of Stray Kids’ ceaseless ambition”.

Billboard named the record among its best K-pop albums of 2023. Jeff Benjamin wrote that the twelve tracks “act as a testament to the meticulous attention the group pours into each composition”, with 3RACHA holding songwriting, composition and production credits across every one. He wrote that the album “challenges SKZ in unprecedented sonic ways”, naming the title track, ‘Topline’ and ‘Youtiful’ as the examples.

IZM’s Jeong Da-yeol wrote that the group had moved from the self-examination of their early records towards showing unrefined thought more lightly, and that on that path “the five stars they awarded themselves are both a confidence and a conviction about that youthful nerve”. Of the production he wrote that the style 3RACHA had led, “filling the sound pressure without a gap, has come to hold a still higher finish”.

Among the tracks

Of the title track Bell wrote that it is “a mishmash of seemingly incongruous parts fused together by 3RACHA’s shapeshifting production prowess”, and called it “an intricate puzzle of booming rap, thrumming bass, sultry electro, ’90s hip-hop, sparkling pop and grimy club, a sonorous Rubik’s cube as complex as it is enthralling”. Jeong wrote that a construction “that varies the instrumental sources and the genre from section to section” could easily have come out clumsy, and that instead the song “takes a familiar arc, places an addictive refrain, and strikes the listener’s memory without mishap”. Clash’s Sharifa Charles called it “an energetic pop anthem showcasing the group’s exceptional talent”, and noted the turn from electro-pop into hip-hop across Changbin’s and Han’s rap verses.

Bell picked out ‘Hall of Fame’ and ‘Topline’. She called the opener “an exhilarating journey, from its whirring synths and heavenly vocal melodies to its gritty percussion and distorted flourishes”, and wrote of the Tiger JK feature that “Stray Kids have never sounded more composed”. Of ‘ITEM’ she wrote that “the track opens with a synth riff that sounds straight out of a video game and immediately barrels into the hook”.

‘FNF’ was written by Bang Chan and Felix. Bell wrote that it “mixes sparkly EDM with social consciousness” and that the song is dedicated to the nature and wildlife lost in the 2019 bush fires. Jeong called the same track “an EDM track touched with a wistful guitar riff”, in which one can see “a layered line of feeling drawn while thinking of the nature lost to the fires”. Of ‘ITEM’ Jeong wrote that its “playful mood” brings out a soft contrast between rap and singing.

Numbers

The Korea Herald reported that the album sold more than 2,390,000 copies on its first day and that pre-orders reached 5,130,000, a K-pop record at the time. By the same report it topped the iTunes albums chart in 33 regions in its release week, and the title track’s music video held first place on YouTube’s worldwide music video trending list for four days in a row. The same title later reported that the album gave the group their third consecutive number one on the Billboard 200.