murder me Seulgi pls - Chill kill review

First Impressions:

 Even before the MV came out, I was excited about this song. I enjoyed Queendom and Birthday but they hadn't hit the RedVelvet-shaped hole in my heart after WildSide and Feel My Rythm promotions were over. 

 Right off the bat, I was impressed by the MV. The Red Velvet members' acting was impressive and believable. I thought the styling was really wonderful, I do believe SM has the upper edge over the other big companies when it comes to styling and marketing, they really do a fantastic job with album art, MV's, and more. 

 It took me a few listens to get used to the English lyrics, as I feel K-pop often does, sometime's it feels jarring to go from Korean to suddenly understanding what they are saying. 

In the last few comebacks, Joy as a vocalist has really shined through. She has always been an impressive and stable vocalist however during Wild Side and Chill Kill, her sweet, and quite unique-sounding voice really fits well with the concept and adds a really wonderful quality to the songs. (similar to how her vocal tone during the bridge in Pyscho made the entire bridge the masterpiece of what it was imo)

It's not hard to fall in love with this song, Red Velvet has perfected the dark yet oddly bright concept while having impressive harmonies and earworm melodies. 

Current (probably) impression: 

MV: again I'm talking about their acting. Yeri, Joy, and Seulgi just knocked it out of the park. Joy's acting really stood out, her prior experience was for sure viewable. One of my favorite scenes was between Yeri and Irene after they killed X, Yeri was kind of acting out, and after hugging Irene kind of broke down. It happened during the pre-chorus and resolved to the chorus, the build-up was fantastic and you could feel the emotion. As I'm writing this during finals, I found her breakdown a bit relatable..not the murder part..:P 

The lyrics are a bit devastating, the song makes me a bit sad knowing that Red Velvet is in 3rd gen and there aren't too many 3rd gen groups still active. Maybe it's a bit of Trauma because I Stanned Gfriend and Izone right before they disbanded X<  not that I think Red Velvet is disbanding. maybe I'm delulu but I think they will last for a long time :)

 (translated lyrics from GENIUS) 

"Yeah, look how much has changed, Look how I'm quite changed"

 "Don't think about tomorrow (Yoo-hoo) Your sparkle is still on, Gonna change at long last, Tears down my cheeks melting that ice, What a chill kill, I know you will bring me lightning, like a winner, Waiting for you here, with a happy ending What a chill kill"

I really enjoyed the MV, I don't think it had the same iconicness as the styling from Psycho or the concept of Peek-a-boo but I think we got to see a new side of Red Velvet members through the video. 

The song is really enjoyable with the bubbly melody of the chorus, but the bittersweet almost melancholy lyrics add this wonderful juxtaposition that made it feel very genuine. Joy's voice and acting sold this song for me. 

Mixing and production 

• not gonna say anything about SM Mixing because I have some gripes with it but it's not specific to red velvet. overall production it's a Red Velvet song and it sounds like a Red Velvet song. and I enjoy many red velvet songs.

• Melody and Harmony: One of my favorite parts of Red Velvet's discography is their harmonies. They sing a lot of intervals well in their music that aren't as common in mainstream pop which makes their music including chill kill almost attached to your heart waiting to see where the song will go. 

Rating: 8/10

y'all see the promo photos tho... cuz damn they were incredible