Gnarly

The song

‘Gnarly’ is a KATSEYE single released on 30 April 2025. The album introduction on Bugs describes it as a track built to stick, with an experimental sound. Two months later it opened the group’s second mini album, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, released on 27 June 2025; the single before it was Touch (ft. YEONJUN of TOMORROW X TOGETHER) in October 2024.

Reviews

Mimyo wrote about the song in his ‘K-pop Navi’ column for Weekly Donga (주간동아) on 14 May 2025. “In popular culture, though, vulgarity can be a source of cultural vitality,” he wrote, and: “‘Gnarly’ is vulgar rather than sexual, and it is special in that it shows that vulgarity with confidence.” He added that “it delivers a fresh shock in that it pours, and handsomely, the things K-pop had not been able to do into a K-pop frame”, and went on: “Among those who take their music as K-pop, ‘Gnarly’ will be judged a fine attempt that broke down a long-standing wall in K-pop.”

The same piece wrote about the stage separately. “And yet on the ‘Gnarly’ stage all six members of KATSEYE throw their bodies about,” Mimyo wrote. “Two minutes and 22 seconds of sheer explosion.” He added that “with choreography designed around K-pop’s formations and camera work laid on top of that, the impression is intense enough to make the eyes sting”.

NME placed the song fifth when it chose the 50 best songs of 2025 on 1 December that year. The entry opens: “When Katseye debuted in 2024, they seemed to be following a soft, cutesy approach to girl group superstardom.” It goes on: “In April, they unceremoniously booted all sweetness out of the picture with the attitude and divisive edge of ‘Gnarly’.”

Clash placed the song ninth in “15 Biggest K-Pop Statements of 2025” on 19 December that year. The entry says: “KATSEYE has quickly made themselves a household name, with their rise to megastardom happening nearly in the blink of an eye.” Of the song itself it writes: “Irrefutably campy, somewhat bizarre, and over the top, Gnarly’s success was solidified by the sextet’s record-breaking Lollapalooza performance.”

Numbers

The song appears on three year-end pages from 2025. It stands fifth on NME’s 50 best songs of the year and ninth on Clash’s “15 Biggest K-Pop Statements of 2025”, and Idology (아이돌로지) put it among the 20 idol pop songs of the year on 30 December. The Idology page states that “no separate ranking was calculated, and the order is by release date”, and that the picks were voted on by nine current and former staff writers and five guest jurors.