THIS & THAT

The record

THIS & THAT is the mini album Stray Kids released on 7 August 2026, with eight tracks. The title track is ‘This & That’. The single RUN IT, out in June, opens the record, and the release before it was DO IT, nine months earlier.

The album introduction on Bugs says the record works a freer and more relaxed energy in the group’s own way, and that an attitude of doing what they want without being held to a fixed form runs through it. The same text describes the title track as a hip-hop-based song with a languid, addictive melody and lyrics that move freely between options, and lists the eight tracks by colour: the progressive house of ‘After You’, the hip-hop ‘FARMING’ built on the gaming idea of farming, the rock ‘I Do’, the acoustic hip-hop ‘Way Out’ and the band sound of ‘Back Then’.

Reviews

Billboard’s Jeff Benjamin ranked the record’s new tracks on the day of release. He wrote that “after eight years together, the group best known for maximalism makes a strong case for pulling back”, and that on this record the group’s ambition “remains in clear focus with K-pop tracks that speak to hustle culture, loyalty and nostalgia while immersing themselves in new sounds, genres and vocal techniques”.

Kwibi of Idology (아이돌로지) covered the record in the magazine’s new-release column for the first week of August 2026. He wrote, “I will leave only one short line: on the title track ‘THIS & THAT’, the festival version placed as the last track is the real thing!”, picking the song that closes the album.

Among the tracks

Of the title track Benjamin set out the group’s reputation for loud, maximalist music and then wrote that “the most intriguing part about THIS & THAT‘s title track is how little it does”. He wrote that “its laid-back hip-hop structure invites the listener in with the guys’ delivery landing somewhere near mumble rap, in the best sense, that it’s easy enough to sing, rap, or talk along with by first listen”, and that the repeated “this or that” refrain is “exactly the kind of hook that can easily lodge itself into clip after clip on social media”. He closed the entry: “At this point in Stray Kids’ career, leaning into and embracing restraint is truly its own kind of flex.”

The track Benjamin called “an undeniable standout” is ‘Way Out’. He wrote that it “embraces a laid-back groove, mixing electro-R&B production with trap beats while adding guitar strumming so organic-sounding that it creates a fascinating friction between the synthetic and live instrumentation”. He pointed at Hyunjin and Bang Chan harmonising on a farewell line in four languages and at the bridge, where the production cuts and the vocal line of Seungmin and I.N takes “a tender, all-too-short falsetto spotlight”, and wrote that the eight members mixing their different vocal colours brings “the octet’s obvious musicianship to center stage”.

Of ‘FARMING’ Benjamin wrote that it is “the weirdest song on the record, but also the most rewarding”, and “2:31 of restless and satisfying experimentation”. He wrote that the beat Bang Chan helped make “has a lurching, off-kilter bounce that recalls eras of Missy Elliott and Timbaland at their most creative”, and that a song borrowing gaming and internet slang to talk about hustle culture is “the one song here that couldn’t have come from anyone else”. Of ‘Back Then’ he wrote that it is “a late-summer song in the truest sense, with a warm, unhurried, and faintly melancholy sound, boasting a distinct ‘80s tilt that feels particularly fresh in Stray Kids’ discography”. Written entirely by Han, at three minutes and forty-five seconds it is the longest track on the record.

Numbers

The Korea Herald, citing the Hanteo Chart, reported first-week sales of about 3.28 million copies, ahead of the 3.04 million recorded by the fourth full-length album a year earlier. The same title reported that the record entered the Billboard 200 at number one with 369,000 equivalent album units in the United States, making Stray Kids the first act to debut their first nine charting albums at the top. By the same report the run gave the group nine number-one albums on that chart, tying the Rolling Stones for the second most among groups. The Korea Herald also reported that the title track entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 38, the group’s highest placing on that chart.