Queendom

The record

Queendom is Red Velvet’s sixth mini album, released on 16 August 2021 with six tracks. The title track is ‘Queendom’. It was their first record as a full group since ‘The ReVe Festival’ Finale in December 2019, a year and eight months earlier.

The album introduction on Bugs describes the title track as a bright pop dance track joining an addictive hook to the group’s light, buoyant singing, with a lyric saying that everyone is the queen of their own life and that they shine brighter together. By the same text the record drew on KENZIE, minGtion, Moonshine and Andreas Öberg, with lyrics by Cho Yoon-kyung, Lee Seu-ran and Seo Ji-eum.

Reviews

JT Early of Beats Per Minute called the record “an exceedingly wonderful project from a group who refuse repeat themselves, and even after seven years of activity, they still enthral and excite with their unpredictability”. He added that “their innate knack for pulling off whatever genre is thrown at them remains stronger than ever”.

Ana Clara Ribeiro of PopMatters picked out the place singing holds in the group’s music: “The elegant melodies performed by the voices of Irene, Wendy, Seulgi, Joy, and Yeri, fill the entire space in the music of Red Velvet; the production is an adornment.” Of the middle of the record she wrote that “in the middle of Queendom is where the cream gets tastier”, and she closed the piece: “And Queendom tastes delicious.”

NME’s Rhian Daly also praised by the song. She wrote: “There are moments where Red Velvet are utterly magical, like the dreamy, soft ‘Knock On Wood’.”

Among the tracks

‘Pose’ is the song three outlets put forward together. NME wrote that it starts on a marching drum beat before “the song breaks free to carve its own space as a rush of poised, confident dance-pop”. Beats Per Minute wrote that “it almost seems a rule that the second tracks in particular on Red Velvet albums prove iconic, and ‘Pose’ is no exception”. In the 127-song retrospective NME published for the group’s tenth anniversary on 1 August 2024, Tássia Assis called the same track “the Red Velvet we’ve come to know and love, topped with an extra dose of sassiness”.

The track Pitchfork’s Joshua Minsoo Kim writes about at greatest length is ‘Pushin’ N Pullin’’. He calls it “the most brilliant track” and describes how, “after a referee whistle blows, piano chords bounce back and forth to signal fighting between lovers”. Noting that the piano can still be heard under the vocal harmonies once the chorus pushes everything else aside, he reads that as a sign of a long-standing love and patience outlasting the quarrel. He wrote that it is “the most striking depiction of romance in Red Velvet’s career”.

The same piece says of ‘Knock On Wood’ that it “traces the anxieties of falling in love, fleshing out the range of emotions felt with careful detail” — sweet melodies in the verses with sharp synth stabs revealing the nerves underneath, and a staccato-like delivery in the chorus as the group try to appear composed.

Of the closing ‘다시, 여름 (Hello, Sunset)’ Beats Per Minute wrote that it is “the most surprising song on this project”, a bright piece of throwback R&B on slow-burning synths and a groovy bass.

Afterwards

Seven months later ‘The ReVe Festival 2022 - Feel My Rhythm’ brought back the name of the 2019 series.