‘Crazy in Love’ is ITZY’s polished studio debut

Though “Crazy in Love” is their debut full-length studio album, ITZY has experienced the spotlight since their inception in February 2019. After their monumental debut singles “Dalla Dalla” and “Icy,” the group maintains its future house and bass influences while incorporating more trap and hip-hop inspired production elements. The result is a strong crop of confident anthems and joyous tracks that further refine their sound.

JYP Entertainment formed ITZY as the label’s first new girl group since 2015. JYP is one of the “Big 3” labels in the K-pop industry, with other giant groups such as TWICE and 2PM rounding out JYP’s ranks.

Members of ITZY Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryeong and Yuna were all heavily trained as vocalists, dancers and rappers up until their 2019 debut. That professionalism has shined in the group’s excellent execution of their artistic pursuits. From vibrant visuals for the album’s lead single “LOCO” to their flawless performance of the track on “The Kelly Clarkson Show”  last Wednesday, ITZY continues to set the bar high for every facet of their work.

The choice of “LOCO” as the lead single shows the group’s musical savvy; the track’s latin-inspired beat and infectious post-chorus make it endlessly replayable, a quality which garnered the song’s music video over 50 million views on Youtube. Thematically, it establishes the focus on love and confidence through a Gen-Z perspective that guides the album. On the track, Lia sings of “going crazy, up and down” in a relationship, feeling she’s “outta control” amid the group’s quirky production.

ITZY find a resolution to that confusion in “SWIPE,” where they allude to rejecting unhealthy relationships in their lives as if on a dating app. Over electronic-pop production, the girls celebrate their power to walk away from toxic partners, encouraging their fans to feel similarly empowered to “Swipe, swipe, swipe / Yeah, to the next.” Fans and critics will be pleased to hear ITZY continues to imbue their music with liberating messages, a practice they have sustained since their first single “Dalla Dalla” (which literally translates from Korean to “Different Different”), an anthem for confident individuality.

There are a number of tracks on the record which offer a wonderfully cute experience. The hook of “Sooo LUCKY,” “I want to know the world that I’m lucky, lucky, lucky,” is an affirmation of thankfulness from Yeji and Chaeryeong. With their impassioned vocals and energetic beats, the back-to-back tracks of “LOVE is” and “Chillin’ Chillin’” deliver a similarly potent shot of dopamine directly to the listener through their cheerful tone and lighthearted subject matter.

Fans of all genres often fear their favorite groups will grow more generic in their full-length debuts, but ITZY effectively holds onto their idiosyncratic noise on “Crazy in Love,” most noticeably in “#Twenty” and “B[OO]M-BOXX.” The latter is a heartfelt, albeit a touch unstructured, homage to their early work, complete with a more homemade sound and left-field production. The former, is likely the weakest song on the tracklist, with an unenthusiastic repetition of “Twenty, twenty, ooh, ooh” taking up most of the chorus.

As the album progresses, the disparity in quality between the A- and B-sides that we might expect seems to be slight, if present at all. Rather, tracks such as “Gas Me Up” continue to weave both the sonic and topical threads of the first four. Even if the lyrics stray from the track’s topical focus at the beginning of a couplet, ITZY manages to center their focus on the cool self-assurance they have always provided: “Well it’s accurate like one plus one equals two / No changing, I do what I do.”

Though “Crazy in Love” serves as a continuation of ITZY’s work, its final track is something new: a pop ballad. It’s a choice that listeners likely won’t expect, and it provides a captivating respite from the album’s preceding up tempo boldness. The spare instrumentation on “Mirror” clears rare space for the group’s masterful vocalists to dazzle, and when the production does flutter, it’s in the form of light percussion or sweet synth strings. It’s not a masterpiece, but its sincerity and uniqueness within the ITZY discography make it a must listen — and provide the album with a lovely concluding reflection on its themes.

“Crazy in Love” accomplishes what K-pop fans have come to expect from a group’s solid debut album; it expounds upon ITZY’s singles and EPs, solidifying their sound and further exploring the themes common in their work. That being said, this album shows little development of the eccentricity and noise which many of ITZY’s fans were drawn to upon their introduction. Rather, some of the choices the group makes in their full-length debut lean more generic. The work has been treated with exceptional care and polished to a shine, but in the rapidly evolving K-pop industry, groups must be careful to hold tight to what makes them special.