All the praise that I have given (G)I-DLE in the past has a pretty major asterisk next to it. That might seem weird to say given that, in my review of this band’s 2022 album I Never Die, I proclaimed the quintet to be my favourite K-pop group, a decision I came to based mostly on the strength of their 2021 mini album I Burn, an eclectic, emotionally intense breakup album that ended up working way better for me than I ever could have imagined. Where the asterisk comes in is that, outside of I Never Die, I didn’t really enjoy much of what the band made before or since I Burn. The result is that I was left with the feeling that this group might not be as good as I originally sold them as, and that their albums that I liked might just be a fluke. I was hoping to be be proven wrong. To be blunt, I was not.
2 is the kind of bad album that I personally dreaded coming from (G)I-DLE. The kind that made me second guess every ounce of praise I had previously given them. It seems to me that none of their handlers have told them what their strengths are, and the result is an album that doubles down on their most obnoxious traits. Then I realised that (G)I-DLE are a predominantly self-produced and self-written group. Therefore the primary emotion I associate with this album is not sadness, frustration, or even embarrassment. Instead, it’s this deep sinking hollowness that all of this might have been self-inflicted.
The easiest point of criticism on this album is the production. For a band that was responsible for introducing me to a more eclectic K-pop sound than I was previously used to, it’s striking just how monotonous and dreary the music on this album is, not to mention completely underpowered in the percussion department. The snare on the hook of ‘Revenge’ has no punch or urgency to it whatsoever, and neither do the cheap hi-hats against the pulsating kick drum and muted keyboard on ‘Vision’. The result is that any attempt at swagger or dramatic swell goes nowhere. See the utter squandering of a decent buildup on ‘Super Lady’ as the best example of that. Then you get to totally unsalvageable moments like the droning extended call-back to the worst song on I Never Die, ‘Rollie’.
You do get some breaks from the trudging emptiness. ‘Fate’ is the most dynamic and joyous song on the album musically, but the lyrics are all about just going through the motions as everything falls apart around you to the point where even just thinking becomes hard. There’s an odd dissonance there that feels awkward. ‘7Days’ is the other moment of respite with its refreshing guitar melody that then proceeds to get smothered by the jittery beat. It still ends up the best song here thanks to that understated but infectious hook, although filling up half of said hook by listing days of the week does strike me as a bit lazy. It’s a similar case with the repeating of words to fill up space on the hook of ‘Doll’, but that song might be the one case where the sour production approach actually connects as it capture the feeling of being fed up with being treated badly be someone pretty well.
That takes us smoothly onto the writing. With this album, (G)I-DLE are trying to turn their back on conventional gender roles, as well as challenge the men who would want them to embody some idealised brand of femininity. All well and good, although it’s territory this band has treaded before. My personal issue is that, even on an album that only just runs to 20 minutes, it’s spectacular how underwritten it all feels. Individual songs like ‘Revenge’ and ‘Doll’ could have considerably benefited from a bridge or something more to flesh them out lyrically, but the bigger problem might be that the album seems to only half-heartedly commit to its fundamental concept, with ‘Super Lady’, ‘Doll’ and ‘Wife’ feeling like the only attempts at crafting a unique artistic statements that do anything to challenge gender stereotypes at all. The former song is a generic girl-power anthem that lacks the smoulder of previous songs this band have made in that vein like ‘Tomboy’ from I Never Die, the middle one is pretty decent as I previously mentioned, and the latter is an attempt at parodying gender roles in the lightest and emptiest way possible and ends up falling really flat. I understand going for broad theatricality, but when that approach only emphasises the plasticity of the product, it’s hard for me to be all that invested.
I think I get it now: (G)I-DLE are a bad group who stumped their way into a couple of good albums by accident, but with no clear idea of why those albums worked, retreated into making some of the most joyless pop music imaginable. What a goddamn shame.
