By: Syahzanan Haunan F
One of SM’s girl groups Red Velvet has finally released their newest EP ‘The ReVe Festival Day 1’ on June 19th, 2019. Red Velvet comes back with six magical tracks influenced by a wide range of genres, starting from electronic pop until funk pop styles, pretty much different from their last EP ‘Really Bad Boy (RBB)’, which allowed them to explore more into the electronic hip hop genre. ‘The ReVe Festival Day 1’ earned RV an excellent accomplishment on iTunes, making them the first K-Pop girl group to rank first on iTunes US Album Chart. The album includes both poppy upbeat songs such as ‘Zimzalabim’ and easy listening songs such as ‘LP (Limited Physical)’ to fill up your day.
The title track ‘Zimzalabim’ is an upbeat song with a magical circus feel, much like the whole concept Red Velvet shows during their current comeback season. ‘Zimzalabim’ might remind you of the group’s debut song ‘Happiness’ but with a mix of EDM and Wendy’s vocals in the chorus. A considerably unique summer song that would bring you a sweet yet somewhat spooky feeling.
A little bit of R&B and funk pop is present in ‘Sunny Side Up!’, the second track off the album. Light guitar mixed up with Irene’s voice dominating the song gives it a light funky feeling. ‘Milkshake’ is a typical Red Velvet electro pop track that contains a mix of bass and cymbals alongside with Hyeri’s voice dominating the track. ‘Bing Bing’, the next track, is a classic K-pop summer number—the most up-beat song among all tracks, it has a bit of a funk influence electric guitar and Joy’s voice taking her turn to dominate the track. Meanwhile, ‘Parade’ sounds more easygoing and playful with experimental rhythms from game sounds and cheerful chorus, somewhat like a cheerful synthwave track. Besides up-beat summer songs, this album also includes classical romantic saxophone melodies mixed with Seulgi’s vocal that flaws in ‘LP (Limited Physical)’.
This EP highlights every member’s vocal characteristics with different type of songs, since all of the members take turn in being a ‘main vocalist’ on each song without overshadowing each other. Songs requiring powerful vocals are dominated by Wendy while light, cheerful songs are dominated by Hyeri. Meanwhile, Irene and Joy have more parts when it comes to upbeat R&B songs. Seulgi, the one often considered to have vocal prowess aside from the main vocalist Wendy herself, dominates ballad tracks. SM did a great job by dividing the members’ parts correctly as it gives each member a chance to have equal parts in songs and still represent themselves as a group.
Overall rating: 8.5/10
Favorite Track: Sunny Side Up!
Speed of Sound Magazine 