Three months after Focus, Hearts2Hearts return with their first single of 2026, and Sebastian Thott’s choice to open on virtually nothing deserves some credit score.
Ian sings into what appears like a lowfi filter earlier than Sebastian Thott’s four-on-the-floor finally arrives beneath her. It takes a beat to belief.
RUDE! is a house-pop observe about refusing to make your self smaller for different folks’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 embrace ITZY and TWICE, retains the verses skinny, a filtered kick and never a lot else, which implies Carmen’s pre-chorus (“나다울 때 누구보다 눈부셔 난 / I’ve been actin’ too…”) has area to really breathe earlier than the refrain pulls the observe into form.
The construction works. Whether or not it really works twice in a row with virtually 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: “You recognize what he mentioned to me? He was like, ‘You’re so impolite.’ And I used to be like, ‘Boy, does it appear to be I might care?’”
The remainder of the observe is polished to the purpose of feeling sealed; that bit appears like an precise individual having a thought.
The music video places the group in a manufacturing facility manufacturing social media likes, although the idea principally 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 seen within the teaser.
RUDE! holds up. Whether or not it does something to separate Hearts2Hearts from the broader SM lady group sound is more durable to say. The refrain catches, the interlude lands, after which it ends. Stella’s voice is the very last thing that stays with you. Utterly unbothered.
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