Many of the current generation of K-pop girl groups have leaned into saccharine-sweet “girl crush” concepts—Weeekly is having none of that. The IST Entertainment septet—Lee Soo-jin, Shin Ji-yoon, Monday, Park So-eun, Lee Jae-hee, Jihan, and Zoa—debuted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in summer 2020, and has made the most of this unusual time. They’ve released fiery, empowering hip-hop-pop tracks (the BLACKPINK-esque “Solar”), stacked with propulsive synths (“Ven para,” featuring a sharp rap verse by Zoa), ending with a quiet coda, the neo-soul ballad “Where Is My Love?” Play Game : AWAKE is the sound of a confident new girl group pushing boundaries—of what kind of pop group they can be and what kind of music they can play with—and it sounds big.
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