Three months after Focus, Hearts2Hearts return with their first single of 2026, and Sebastian Thott’s choice to open on nearly nothing deserves some credit score.
Ian sings into what feels like a lowfi filter earlier than Sebastian Thott’s four-on-the-floor ultimately arrives beneath her. It takes a beat to belief.
RUDE! is a house-pop observe about refusing to make your self smaller for different individuals’s consolation. Being precisely who you might be, even when somebody calls it impolite, is the purpose, not the flaw. Yuha spells it out within the pre-chorus: “뭐든 맘대로 / Do it my method.” Not a metaphor, only a place.
Thott, whose credit embody ITZY and TWICE, retains the verses skinny, a filtered kick and never a lot else, which suggests Carmen’s pre-chorus (“나다울 때 누구보다 눈부셔 난 / I’ve been actin’ too…”) has area to truly breathe earlier than the refrain pulls the observe into form.
The construction works. Whether or not it really works twice in a row with nearly no variation between choruses is the place the music begins to point out its limits.
Someplace within the again half, Stella breaks away from the choreography lengthy sufficient to relay a dialog: “ what he stated to me? He was like, ‘You might be so impolite.’ And I used to be like, ‘Boy, does it seem like I may care?’”
The remainder of the observe is polished to the purpose of feeling sealed; that bit feels like an precise particular person having a thought.
The music video places the group in a manufacturing facility manufacturing social media likes, although the idea largely sits within the background whereas they run by means of the choreography in co-ordinated pastel outfits. Carmen’s pink hair was the very first thing the r/kpop thread observed within the teaser.
RUDE! holds up. Whether or not it does something to separate Hearts2Hearts from the broader SM woman group sound is tougher to say. The refrain catches, the interlude lands, after which it ends. Stella’s voice is the very last thing that stays with you. Fully unbothered.
You may also like:
