RBB

The record

RBB is Red Velvet’s fifth mini album, released on 30 November 2018 with six tracks. The title track is ‘RBB (Really Bad Boy)’. The closing track is that song’s English version, so there are four other songs on the record.

The album introduction on Bugs describes the title track as an R&B pop dance track that sets the group’s bright high notes and ad libs against an addictive melody, with lyrics that state plainly how strongly a “bad boy” pulls at the singer. By the same text the song was written by Kenzie, who had already written ‘Red Flavor’, ‘Peek-A-Boo’ and ‘Power Up’ for the group, and the record also drew on The Underdogs, LDN Noise, DEEZ and PENOMECO. The label presents it as the third release of that year, after ‘Bad Boy’ from The Perfect Red Velvet in January and ‘Power Up’ from Summer Magic in August.

Reviews

The critical page this record has arrived six years after it did. On 1 August 2024, for the group’s tenth anniversary, NME published a piece by Tássia Assis going through all 127 songs Red Velvet had released, one entry at a time. Four songs from RBB have an entry there.

The longest of them is ‘Butterflies’. Assis wrote that “‘Butterflies’ is so good that words don’t do it justice”, and that “you need to listen to the ethereal harmonies, the hazy layering, the retro-yet-trendy synths, to fully comprehend its magic”. She called it “a definite highlight in a discography full of glistening jewels”.

Among the tracks

‘Butterflies’ is the track the album introduction describes as a funk-pop song built on dreamy pluck synths and R&B chords, comparing the moment of falling in love to a butterfly drifting on the air. The producing team The Underdogs worked on it.

‘So Good’ is an R&B-rooted future bass track carried by melodic piano and a rhythmic drum sound. Of it NME wrote: “‘So Good’ is a deceiving title, this song should actually be called ‘Impeccable’.”

The closing ‘Taste’ is an old-school pop dance song which, by the album introduction, opens with a narration Wendy wrote herself and tells the listener to choose from the many options in front of them without minding anyone else. NME introduced it as a record that “reinforces an important truth: ‘There are many different tastes in the world’”, and added: “Yet, we keep coming back to Red Velvet for a reason.”

The remaining song, ‘멋있게 (Sassy Me)’, is an urban pop dance track. The album introduction says it carries the group’s range in one song, from a low, murmured delivery up to their high notes.

Afterwards

The next release by the full group came the following June with ‘The ReVe Festival’ Day 1, the first of a trilogy Red Velvet put out across 2019.