Chill Kill: Album Review

Introduction

A lot of people don’t seem to appreciate Red Velvet’s dual concept, and it annoys the shit out of me.

Sorry, it probably isn’t the classiest move to kick the review off with profanity, but I needed to get my feelings out. I just don’t think it’s that hard to grasp: they have ‘red’ songs and ‘velvet’ songs, which means that they will alternate between concepts and their music isn’t going to sound the same all the time! I swear it seems like people just want them to release very slight variations of ‘Bad Boy’ over and over and over again. I don’t have anything against that song, I think it’s really good, but I wish people would see that there’s so much more to Red Velvet’s discography than it and ‘Psycho’.

Both in and out of the fandom, it seems like their Velvet concepts are always prized above the Red ones. Whenever a new release is announced, Reveluvs join hands and skip around the fire praying it will be a Velvet album. I always hate to sound like a Twitter stan, but I have to say it: some of you guys just hate fun. They’re an incredibly versatile group, pulling off fun and upbeat pop just as well as sultry R&B, so it pains me to see fans insist that they should just become repetitive and stagnant.

When Chill Kill (or rather, What A Chill Kill, as it was originally called) was announced, it’s an understatement to say that people were excited. After all, they hadn’t put out full-length material six years, and fans were hungry for a substantial project. Reveluvs only grew more eager as the album got closer: I saw about a million different pieces of fanart of the Seulgi promo photo above. Then, finally, on the 13th of November, it was Red Velvetin’ time!

I have so much to say about this album, you have no idea. I love it when music just begs me to write about it, when my mind bursts with inspiration as I float my way through the tracklist. However, before I talk about Chill Kill, I think it’s quite important to discuss what came before it.

The Perfect Velvet

Prior to Chill Kill’s release, Red Velvet had put out two full-length Korean studio albums: The Red in 2015, and The Perfect Velvet in 2017. While The Red is, at least in my opinion, totally excellent, it certainly isn’t as revered as its successor. If anybody anywhere is having a discussion about the best K-pop albums of all time, it’s very likely that TPV will get a mention, along with other staples like Pink Tape by f(x) and Reboot by Wonder Girls.

The mere fact that ‘Kingdom Come’ is on this album cements its greatness, in my book. They’ve done a lot of R&B tracks over the years, but I think this is by far their best one. TPV effortlessly flits between vibes – from mellow to spooky to energetic – and across the nine tracks, it takes you on a spectacular musical journey. It’s one of my favourite K-pop albums and I think it will always be one of the highlights of their body of work.

A particularly fascinating element that I want to point is the instrumentals. When I listen to the instrumental-only track of, for example, ‘Peek-A-Boo’, I’m struck by just how simple it seems. Bare, almost. However, the instrumentals don’t need to be bitty and needlessly complex for the songs to be phenomenal. That’s because Red Velvet’s vocals and the layering of their harmonies do a lot of the heavy lifting, filling out the song and making it sound truly complete. Red Velvet’s harmonies are second to none in the K-pop industry, in my humble opinion, and this album really proves it.

The reason I’ve waffled on about one of Red Velvet’s previous works is to highlight that Chill Kill had very big shoes to fill. If The Perfect Velvet had just been a filler-heavy, forgettable album, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a big deal – but the sheer acclaim it garnered, coupled with the painfully long wait between full-length projects, made expectations very high. Chill Kill was going to have to be a pretty damn great album.

My thoughts on each track

‘Chill Kill’ – Reveluvs irritate me sometimes. This fandom goes on and on about how Red Velvet have the best discography in K-pop, and then they’re the first people to throw any new music they put out to the dogs. Personally, I love the contrasting nature of the title track. The verses are beautifully sinister, and then there’s a hint of something different in the prechorus. In the chorus, the mood flips, and it’s unexpected but enticing. The song builds up masterfully, and it balances all these contrasts without ever feeling messy or careless.

‘Knock Knock (Who’s There?)’ – This song combines a few different elements that, on their own, always make for a fantastic Red Velvet track. When you combine the creepy atmosphere and the classical music sample, I’m afraid you’re bound to have a banger on your hands. ‘Knock Knock’ feels like a song you would hear coming out of a music box in a creepy abandoned house, and I mean that entirely as a complement. The strings are one of the best parts of the instrumental, really amplifying the eerieness.

‘Underwater’ – This is one of the most raved-about songs by fans, and I completely understand why it made basically every ‘best K-pop B-sides of 2023’ list I saw on Twitter. The atmosphere it creates is simply glorious, and the production work is some of the most effective on the album. It feels like an evolution of their most beloved R&B songs that manages to yet again improve on their rendition of that sound. Honestly, it’s not one of my top favourites, but that doesn’t mean I don’t adore it a whole lot; it just has impossibly stiff competition.

‘Will I Ever See You Again?’ – This is not just my favourite song on the album, but one of my favourites in their entire discography. Now, that’s a very high bar, but ‘WIESYA?’ effortlessly leaps over the bar without even needing a jump to prepare. The drop in the chorus is simply magical; the words I type cannot do justice to the way it makes me feel. This song is smooth like silk, with an undercurrent of potent emotion bubbling just beneath the tranquility of the water. One of the best things about it how confidently understated it is; it doesn’t need to be flashy, it’s calm in its excellence. At least in my – perhaps egregiously enthusiastic – view, this will go down as one of Red Velvet’s greats.

‘Nightmare’ – From the title, you might expect ‘Nightmare’ to be really spooky and intense (especially considering the group it’s coming from), but it’s kind of the opposite. Indeed, the lyrics don’t feature the members describing a nightmare or revelling in inflicting one upon the listener, but rather assuring us that it’s OK, that this predicament we find ourselves is just a dream. In particular, the post chorus feels very warm; it’s perhaps my favourite part of the song.

‘Iced Coffee’ – This is one of the more lowkey songs on the record, but that by no means detracts from its quality. It’s very beautiful to listen to and the members’ vocals really do it justice. I will always say that even though Red Velvet don’t write their own music, they deserve a lot of kudos for so gorgeously bringing the songwriter’s vision to life. I drink coffee once in a blue moon, but this song makes me want to get a nice iced coffee, sit by the window and just think about nice things. I’d probably end up spilling the coffee out the window with my luck, but at least some great music made me do it.

‘One Kiss’ – Listening to ‘One Kiss’ a few days ago was what really inspired me to push on with this review. I’d had it in my drafts for the longest, but hearing it inspired me to give the whole album a listen and properly start writing. I very much enjoy this song. The prechorus of this really makes you sit up and listen; I adore it. It has a bit of Red Velvet’s signature edge to it, but it balances that with being perfectly catchy.

‘Bulldozer’ – I haven’t seen much praise for this song, which baffles me a little, as it’s one of my favourites (though I suppose I could say that about most of the songs). When I first heard it, I was immediately drawn in. This song feels dark and enticing in a way that only Red Velvet can manage. The song isn’t entirely vocal-heavy, which is always my preference when it comes to Red Velvet, but even the chant-y parts don’t break my enjoyment. It’s also on the shorter side, under three minutes, but it still very much feels whole.

‘Wings’ – This is one of those songs that is only made more effective when you listen to it as you play the album it’s attached to. As we draw to the end of the tracks, this song feels so warm, a heartfelt push to the finish. We’re not quite there, but it makes us hold the journey all the more dear. Even divorced from the context of Chill Kill, it’s beautiful.

‘Scenery’ – A lot of people like to trash on ballads, and I honestly understand why. It can seem like, if you’ve heard one ballad, you’ve pretty much heard them all. The thing is, while Red Velvet’s ballads aren’t especially innovative, not really trying to stretch the boundaries of the style, the members have heavenly voices, and that alone makes them worth listening to. I cannot stress it enough, these women could sing the terms and conditions of an app to me and I’d be fully engrossed the entire time. ‘Scenery’ is a gorgeous song, and it works very well as an album closer, leaving you satisfied with the project as a whole.

My thoughts on the album as a whole

This album feels very purposefully put together. Yeah, no shit, but I hope you get what I mean. Even though no two songs sound the same, they all make sense under the same roof and the tracklist flows fantastically. Ten songs is the perfect amount for Chill Kill: not too short like all too many K-pop albums seem to be these days, but at the same time it doesn’t drag and leave you wishing they wrapped things up three songs ago.

Since I am genuinely incapable of going any significant length of time without yapping about Stray Kids, I’m going to compare Chill Kill to their album Noeasy, specifically the cohesiveness of the two projects. Noeasy is an album drawing from a lot of different genres, and that can lead to some quite jarring moments when you listen to it in order. I think the most glaring example of this is during the unit tracks, when it goes from dark, sensual ‘Red Lights’ to the upbeat summer song that is ‘Surfin”. Now, I still very much enjoy listening to that album in the tracklist order; I find the jumps in vibe and energy refreshing. It’s just a different intention that what Chill Kill had, and I think both approaches are effective.

Well, what was the point of bringing all that up? Ugh, you just wanted to talk about Stray Kids, didn’t you? I mean, yes, but actually no. I just wanted to say that Chill Kill is quite different from a lot of great K-pop albums, because it manages to feel cohesive even when the subject matter and genre influences of each song are very different. Of course, not all albums set out to do that, but all the wonderfully talented creatives behind Chill Kill had a very specific vision, and they more than pulled it off.

While I’m on that subject, I want to give all the people that worked behind the scenes on this album a big friendly smooch. The lyricists, the producers, the creative directors, the photographers, the stylists – keep up the excellent work, folks! Of course, the Red Velvet members deserve lots of credit for bringing the album to life, but I always think it’s worth highlighting the army of folks out of the spotlight that deserve their flowers too.

Conclusion

In case this glowing review didn’t make it clear, I really, really love this album. And, I’m just going to say it: I think it’s the best thing Red Velvet has ever released. I’m perfectly aware that those are fighting words, but I am willing to stand by them. It has some of their best songs ever and it actually feels like an thought-through album, a true work of art, rather than a title track and some half-assed B-sides strung together.

Yes, I would go so far as to say that this dethrones The Perfect Velvet. I know we as a fandom love that album, everybody does, but even the mightiest king has to relinquish his crown eventually. My other favourite Red Velvet project at the moment is The ReVe Festival 2022: Feel My Rhythm, and I actually feel like the two albums have a lot in common. All the songs sound different, but there’s an undeniable thematic consistency that keeps the album flowing smoothly. Plus, they both feature samples of classical music.

All I have to say is, if you’ve gotten to the end of my review and you’ve still never listened to Chill Kill: what are you even doing with your life?! Go, run to your preferred streaming service when you have some free time and give it a listen top to bottom! I promise it will be time well spent. Thank you very, very much for reading.

Originally published on Quora, 6/2/24.