Song Review:: Stray Kids: KARMA- CEREMONY

• Release date: 2025 August 22

• Album tracklist: BLEEP, CEREMONY, CREED, MESS, In My Head, Half Time, Phoenix, Ghost, 0801, CEREMONY (Festival Version), CEREMONY (English Version)

• Album runtime: 32 minutes

 Congrats to my Baby Stay friend who has graduated to Toddler Stay! Whoooo! And the fact that they spent the tour giving spoilers and no one noticed. When they revealed that, I had to blink and sigh. It's fine. I'm just being clowned this year by my groups. 

I could swear, I can feel that drum or bass in my bones, but I'm not even listening to it in a way that would allow me to feel it in my bones. This song doesn't feel like it's as long as it is, which is both weird and a shame. We've got kind of an Indian vibe to the whole thing layered over the top of the bass and the drums that is just satisfying to hear, you know? Also, the siren alarms is a very nice addition.

This is going to be a really good performance song, which is good considering K-Pop in general is so performance driven. The fan chant is also going to be really good. I also deliberately chose not to listen to the rest of the album yet because in general, I don't like the title tracks from Stray Kids as well as I do B-Sides. Which is fine. I've got a few I really like, but generally it takes me a while of listening to the whole album to like the title track. This one has kind of the same problem, and it's in the same genre as Thunder by Seventeen and In Your Fantasy by ATEEZ, which means that this is apparently just the sound of the summer. Vocally, there's what feels like a lot repetition, and when we get to the singing, they're very similar to the feel of the rapping, so not as distinct as I'd like it to be, especially when there's so much rapping. I'll probably learn to like it, but it might take a bit and some distance.

Hello, Faker. Nice to see you there.

A couple of things. One, I'm excited for the dance practice/choreography version to drop because I'm going to like that choreography. We didn't get to see a lot of it this time around, but what we did get to see is pretty swaggy and I'm down with that. Two, this kind of feels like the big brother song to My Pace, and yes, I know I did a GH post for My Pace so it's hands down the one I know best, but the racing and the general vibe to the music videos match really well. Topically, they're related as well, but then, a lot of Stray Kids's music is related in that way. And, because I know very little about all the other sports, I'm pleased to announce that I.N's form during his tennis section was actually not too bad, especially with the backhand. The forehand looks like it would have been a little unstable, but nothing that a little shift to how the wrist is positioned wouldn't have fixed. Tiny adjustment, and since I don't think he's been playing tennis since he was five (and also the fact that this is for a music video and not to actually play tennis), I'm mentioning it as praise. I've seen much, much worse from people and it gives me chest pains sometimes. His didn't. Well done, I.N.