As SM Entertainment’s bid for fifth-gen girl group domination, Hearts2Hearts had a slow start but have charted progressively better with each comeback. New single RUDE! arrives with plenty of hype, not only because of the group’s potential but also because it finally breaks a late-winter hiatus for the industry.
So far, my favorite Hearts2Hearts track has been last summer’s Style. It packed the most melodic wallop and remembered to bring that most important aspect of K-pop: fun. Its follow-up Focus was also good, but relied too much on spoken-word hooks for my taste. RUDE! feels like a middleground between both songs. It’s sleek and fashionable — tasteful to the point of feeling generic within this era of subdued house sounds. However, its chorus recalls some of the bubbly appeal of Style. The melodies are still too flat for my taste, but at least they’re trying to poke through.
A silly spoken-word bridge injects some personality into the track, but overall RUDE! feels as if it could have been delivered by most of this generation’s girl groups. I’m beginning to hear a “signature sound” blossom for Hearts2Hearts, but I fear it isn’t specific enough to etch the group into SM’s pantheon of strong girl group history. RUDE! would sound great bumping in the background of a busy cafe or soundtracking a strutting model runway walk. It confidently delivers a specific, sanitized aesthetic. But judged strictly as a piece of pop music, its tricks are pretty limited and repetitive.
Hooks
8
Production
8
Longevity
8
Bias
7
RATING
7.75
Grade: C+
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