Go ‘Crazy in Love’ with ITZY’s range in their first full album
by Mharla Francesca Santiano
After a year of basking in the afterglow of GUESS WHO, ITZY leaves their mafia era to drop their newest (and first!) full-length album: Crazy in Love, with LOCO as the title track.
It’s no denying that the girls, even just two years after their debut, already adopted a signature sound and tune that’s recognizably ITZY. It’s understandable, really, because with Crazy in Love, both MIDZYs and casual K-pop listeners are in for a treat.
On September 24, ITZY released its music video for LOCO which jumped over the one million views mark in only 27 minutes. It now dons the title as the fastest fourth generation K-pop music video to reach that feat.
You might want to stream it yourself, but here’s what I think: LOCO walked so In the morning and WANNABE could run. This has become an instant addition to girlboss anthems while having lyrics of romance and pining. The trumpet blares at the beginning as if signaling the arrival of royalty which definitely helped pump the mood of what to expect. A personal favorite is the last chorus that gives life to isolated beats similar to a crowd clapping in unison. Yeji and Lia’s vocals become the highlight right before the second half of the chorus starts, regaining its original instrumentals. Before they bow out, the girls keep us on the edge of our seats when the music stops for almost twenty seconds in the final chorus, giving the same vibes as the iconic concert scene from Cruella (2021).
Concept confection
It’s always a delight to see a group portray different characters in a music video, and LOCO is no stranger to that.
On the visual side, it starts off with hot pink and purples flooding your vision. Ryujin’s outfit gives the bedazzled version of a conventional secret agent bodysuit as she perches on the bulldozer like a throne, carrying heaps of symbols of romance: heart-shaped balloons, present boxes, and even glowing kiss marks on the side. Yuna fills the role of an angel in disguise with a white tutu and feather wings that light up inside, perfectly meshing with elements that make her disguise crack a little more: the spiky headband, the pastel chainsaw, and the fact that she’s behind pink bars.
Yeji in the pre-chorus lures us with feline fantasy from the space buns resembling cat ears, down to the bigger-than-life-sized cat toys sprawled across the room, and a cat tower in the most literal sense. We see Chaeryeong on top of a black present with a size big enough to cause a traffic jam in the middle of a bridge. Instead of the usual stick-on ribbons, the box is wrapped with streaks of yellow warning tape, spelling out the agenda “CRAZY IN LOVE.” Lia embodies Madonna’s Material Girl as the pile of clothes she has yet to try on serves as her sofa inside her walk-in closet that leans more to being an exclusive spa.
Many flavors for a first
ITZY marks their first full-length album with tracks oozing with confidence, verses of love poems, and even tunes that give you the familiar feeling of a friend patting you on the back.
SWIPE brands itself with its repetitive lyrics in the chorus, mirroring the staple swiping experience in most dating applications. Though the song punches rapid verses of independence and breaking out of boxes, lyrics like “ping ping the smackdown begins” don’t go unnoticed when I first heard them. Nonetheless, SWIPE lives up to the vibe we need when we just want to bob our heads to the music. In true Gen Z fashion, the music video for SWIPE just gets it. From checkered patterns and gradient pastels to a whole chorus of just ITZY performing TikTok transitions, it’s a loading symbol of what Filipinos could really relate to.
Picture a group of friends on a road trip with the windows down and arms up in the air. Sooo Lucky conjures that image in my mind in the first ten seconds. Besides the warm energy of a coming-of-age film, the song comes to terms with a romance starting to bubble up, and the willingness to set off on an adventure with your significant other. Speaking of adventures, the track beats the same feel as Taylor Swift’s Welcome To New York. And with that, consider me Sooo Lucky.
#Twenty gives instant In the morning vibes with the intro, but its story steers differently. The girls’ rapping game becomes the center of the song, especially that of lead rapper Yuna who doesn’t play around with her fifty-seven-syllables-in-seven-seconds verse. As volleying flows of rap compose the main verses, a bright and peppy pre-chorus suddenly enters like it was from another song. It’s messy, but honestly, that’s what being 20 is all about. We go through so many changes in so little time, and as a lyric writes, “The responsibility is heavy. But the freedom is sweet.” I couldn’t agree more.
Gas Me Up is also another rap-infused banger that offers confidence and ego wrapped in ITZY’s natural rapping prowess. The verses ride a rapid but smooth flow that perfectly transitions to an R&B pre-chorus and a main event drop that has the same energy the song started off with.
Manifesting the same energy as ICY and WANNABE, ITZY dips into the world of tech house with the album’s fifth track: B[OO]M-BOXX. Yes, you better get the brackets right! Though the Genius English translations don’t seem to reflect the clearest story the girls were trying to tell, I do know that it conveys a pulsing attraction as intense as a boombox speaker. Oh, and that TWICE reference had me squealing.
Taking a short break from the fast-paced deliveries, ITZY’s vocals continue to thrive. With a sound that relies on the slow melodies of the early 2000s, LOVE is carries the weight of the pain that hinders the heart to love again, while Mirror sets an atmospheric slow-burn of that pain. LOVE is concludes that the heart exists for a reason, and Mirror tells us that acknowledging pain is already healing itself. The strength that can be linked to toughness becomes gentle in the song, and gives us a mantra we could all use: “Whisper every day you will be okay”
In the same musical wavelength, Chillin’ Chillin’ is an instant comfort song for the long-time lovers of upbeat tunes. The pop-infused track is reminiscent of Cher Lloyd’s Oath, with lyrics of freedom, letting go, and to “Just take care of your expectations” because you don’t always have to live up to them.
The lines and lyrics discourse
‘Crazy in Love’ was able to give us different colors of ITZY, lyric and genre-wise. Each song provides a handy companion in whatever mood we can feel. But most of them, including the title track, utilizes too much noise like elements of a distorted robot voice in rap verses or dubstep-esque static that literally replaces actual lyrics in choruses.
I understand each track has a life on its own, with its own melting pot of music genres and arrangements. But I hope the producers and songwriters don’t always make wordless sound chunks as the main ingredient. Besides, they already nailed it with Chillin’ Chillin,’ LOVE is, and Mirror, and I hope that continues in ITZY’s future comebacks.
On the Twitter side, the album’s line distribution garnered different sentiments. While most people praised the group for having the fairest line distribution in the album, some were not living for it. Each member had their own highlights, but the group’s vocal positions seemed to just fade in the background due to having short (and forgettable) lines like how Chaeryeong is always at the receiving end.
The internet locals losing it over Yuna’s rap in #Twenty only indicates that her lead rapper position is underused. JYPE needs to touch up on ITZY’s role assignments to give the girls their deserved shining moment, not only in a song or two, but in every track the group blesses us with.
Despite some missed points, ITZY makes up for it by showing us the image of an edgy and ragged youth spirit seamlessly meeting glitter galore fantasy. Though it doesn’t stray far from their previous comeback concepts, it still excites me for what ITZY has in store for the next one. Maybe a ballad-centered concept? Or the freshly-arrived spring season feeling in Chillin’ Chillin’ perhaps?
ITZY proves once again that they are only on the tip of their range, and for a first full-length album, the girl gang delivered well. Crazy in Love has upgraded me from a casual listener to a MIDZY starting her first day on the job. I only hope that the fandom lets me in.
Stream ITZY’s Crazy in Love and go LOCO as much as I did.
