IVE SWITCH

The record

IVE SWITCH is IVE’s second mini album, released on 29 April 2024, six months after the first mini album I’VE MINE. It carries six tracks and two title tracks, ‘해야 (HEYA)’ and ‘Accendio’. Starship Entertainment’s album introduction on Bugs says the lyrics of ‘해야 (HEYA)’ retell a folk tale about a tiger who loved the sun, and that the music video carries traditional patterns and props into the costumes and the set. The same text credits Jang Wonyoung with part of the lyrics of ‘Accendio’.

Reviews

IZM’s Jang Jun-hwan called the mini album “a second voyage set out for the conquest of a new continent, with a bigger plan and a bigger scale behind it”. Against the record before it Jang wrote that “the handling is clearly smoother than on the previous album, where they were fetching one piece of equipment after another and learning how to use it”, and that “they kept their guard up about absorbing what is in fashion — the metallic PC Music synths mixed into ‘Accendio’, now well known as the metallic texture of aespa, or ‘Blue heart’ with its drum-and-bass property braking a light key — but they do not stop there”. Of the familiar songs placed at each end Jang wrote that “they have put knot-like tracks on both sides, one making contact with the past and one opening the possibility of the future”, and that “what is surprising is that they looked back at a self that had tried to change everything with a single record, and prepared a ‘light departure’ again”.

Yemi, writing for the K-pop criticism webzine Idology, placed the record among its 16 albums of the year for 2024 and wrote that “a clear melody line that suits the members’ ornamental vocal tones is alive across every track whatever the sound, giving the impression of clothes that fit exactly”. Yemi wrote that “‘해야’ and ‘Accendio’, which widen the range of expression with aggressive drum and bass placement and a borrowing from fantasy while not bothering to hold down the timbres that stand out, are at the head of it, while the tracks after them take the force off a little and test the team’s range of expression freely”, and added that “the declaration that there is far more ground to reach while the team’s identity is preserved was welcome”.

Real Sound, a Japanese music outlet, took up the record’s lead track in its weekly column on new releases. The writer Mori called ‘해야 (HEYA)’ “a hip-hop number that scatters a sensuous scent”, and wrote that “the production that carries it into a fine pop song anyone can enjoy — through a flow that makes the most of the pleasant sound of the words, and a restrained vocal and rap — is also admirable”.

Among the tracks

‘해야 (HEYA)’ is the title track all three outlets took up. Jang called it “something like a compressed edition of the discography”, and wrote that “in a little over three minutes it commits the grand density of the existing hit formula, Korea’s own traditional culture and a violent genre mixing all at once, and takes hold of the eyes and ears”.

‘Accendio’ is the second title track 음악취향Y (Eumak Chwihyang Y), a Korean music webzine whose name reads as ‘musical taste Y’, took up in Single-Out no. 500, the column in which several writers cover a new single together. Kim Sung-hwan wrote that “this song too makes active use of rap as an element, while in the making of the beat it lays out the latest electronic hip-hop trends like an assorted gift set, and on top of that folds in a retro sound such as the 808 bass rhythm flexibly as well”, and that although a great many sound elements are mixed into the one song, “because it flows on holding its beginning, development, turn and close naturally, it brings out the merit of being ‘dizzyingly ornate and smoothly mixed at once’”. Kim also reported that, besides Seo Ji-eum, who had written for them before, Gaeko of Dynamic Duo worked on the rap lyrics. The writer publishing as Yeolsimhi called it “a song built to start sharply on a synth arpeggio and a trap beat, run on like the familiar K-pop of minor chords, then look for one more change after the break part”. Yu Seong-eun wrote that “the run of the trap sound, the jersey-club mood that comes in at the chorus and the drum-and-bass solo arrive one after another, and even so the joins give no trouble”, and called the song “a variation in search of an identity that is IVE’s own and new”. The column prints a star rating per writer: Kim ★★★★, Yeolsimhi ★★★☆, Yu ★★★☆.

‘RESET’ is the track Jang picked out at the other end of the record. Jang wrote that “‘Reset’, where the writing of Seo Jeong-eum — the lyricist of OH MY GIRL’s ‘Dolphin’ and Seo Ji-eum’s sister — stands out, is a light project for planning a future”.

Numbers

Idology placed the record among its 16 albums of the year in its 2024 round-up. The music-video picks in the same round-up carry both ‘해야’ and ‘Accendio’.

The music videos

Of the video for ‘해야 (HEYA)’, Cho Eun-jae wrote in Idology’s 2024 music-video picks that “this is how you make a music video that gets the music played more than once”. Of ‘Accendio’, Squib wrote that “the first time I saw it, the location — some pension in a corner of Chungcheong, apparently — struck me as out of nowhere and funny, but chewing it over, that seems to have been the point exactly. A magical-girl story unfolding out of nowhere in a place that is only half real.” Cho called the same video “a tribute for everyone whose dream job was ‘magical girl’”.

What came after

The video for ‘해야 (HEYA)’ went up on the label’s official STARSHIP channel on release day, and the video for ‘Accendio’ followed on the same channel on 15 May 2024. The third mini album IVE EMPATHY came in February the next year.