I’m a pretty big fan of STAYC’s music. There has yet been a track from them which I outrightly dislike. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end- like their streak of good music. ‘Cheeky Icy Thang’ marks this point.
I’m all for satire and nonsense in K-pop. If there is anything that can better prove this, that is being an NCTZEN (which I am). I genuinely don’t mind it- as long as it is delivered so convincingly that it transfigures nonsense into genuine fun and games. Unfortunately, the STAYC members, clearly not used to this type of sing/talk style, aren’t able to handle the nonsense that they were given. I cannot even fully blame the girls in this situation, but it still makes me rather mad. I understand what they were going for here (at least I’d like to think so). I really do. But I cannot take this track with any semblance of seriousness with how awkward the delivery is. Perhaps I will see this differently in the future, but as for now, it is downright flat.
As many have already noticed, the production sounds like RUN2U’s sister- well, if it didn’t spend enough time developing in the mother’s womb. It is bad enough that the main hooks of the song are not ‘sung’ and really have no melodic quality, but that can still be saved with enough repetition, which will help gaslight me into thinking that it is not really that bad. This has worked on me several times in the past, with the likes of NMIXX’s earliest singles (though it really wasn’t THAT bad, I will still insist!). But because of the absence of the 3rd chorus and bridge, absolutely nothing sticks in my head after listening! Nothing! And I can genuinely say that it is an accomplishment, for it is much harder for any song to leave me with absolutely nothing than something. Congratulations Black Eyed Pilsung! What is there in the instrumentals IS good, don’t get me wrong, it is the best part of the whole track. But it just sabotages itself with its absurd song length, paired with the already nonsensical hook. Let me put out a rather striking question- has any NCT song with a nonsense-esque hook been shorter than 3 minutes? No! From ‘Hot Sauce’ to ‘Baggy Jeans’ to ‘Kick It’, each and every single one of these tracks had enough time for the rather absurd and hilarious hooks to sink in to the head, weather you like it or not. But this track doesn’t!
Not only does it fail to sell the vibe fully, it sabotages itself by not allowing enough time to let the listener to get a grasp of it, especially at first listen. I’m almost positive that my impression of this song will improve somewhat over time if I would go back and listen to it, but now I have absolutely no desire to check it out again. I strongly suspect that this is not an isolated experience.
Conclusively, ‘Cheeky Icy Thang’ is easily the worst STAYC title track, and even goes as far as self-sabotaging itself. It leaves me feeling sorry for the girls.
Hooks – 5
Production – 8
Vocal Delivery – 8
Talk/Rap Delivery – 5
Overall – 6.5
Edit: With hindsight, I definitely slightly overreacted. Here is my updated thoughts~
Hooks – 5 -> 7
Production – 8-> 10
Vocal Delivery – 8
Talk/Rap Delivery – 5 -> 7
Overall – 6.5 -> 8
K-pop Evaluated 
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