Song Review:: IVE: REVIVE+- BANG BANG {Pre-Release}

• Release date: 2026 February 23

• Album tracklist: BLACKHOLE, BANG BANG, Hush, Stuck In Your Head, Fireworks, HOT COFFEE, 8 (Jang Wonyoung Solo), Odd (Gaeul Solo), Super ICY (Leeseo Solo), Unreal (Liz Solo), In Your Heart (Rei Solo), Force (An Yujin Solo)

• Album runtime: 34 minutes

 So, they dropped a pre-release single and now the album is out. And I'm behind. As usual. It's fine, actually. At the end of last year, if you missed it, I did a Greatest Hits post on Love Dive so if you wanted to take a look at that, you totally should. I decided to do the pre-release first because odds are good that they'll get a win on the title track, so I will likely have to do that anyway. Let's get crackin', shall we?

Ooh, I was not expecting that guitar at the beginning. The shift into the street music disappointed me a little but then the guitar came back and I was fine with it. We do get a bit of variation and some interesting sound effects, which I appreciate, and generally speaking, I really like the instrumental we're getting from this song. 

I'm about to say something that I may get yelled at for, but this reminds me of the Batman theme from the Adam West TV show. And I think, because of that, the amount that the word "bang" is said is more fine than the amount of repetition would normally suggest. So apparently all it takes is a reference to one of the goofiest serious super hero TV shows. And it may not even be a reference because I doubt it is. But that's what it sounds like. I'm not a fan of the actual vocals because it's largely in the low (which as an Alto I love) narrow band of notes that just feels kind of lazy from the songwriters. Even when it's higher, like in the one soft spot in the song, it's almost entirely a single note, which admittedly is easy to sing but not easy to sing well. It sounds nice, but it also sounds like a harmony rather than a melody. The song is probably at least 75% in English, which is fine. But on the whole, I'm glad that this is a pre-release and thus a b-side rather than the album's title track. 

That horse is going to make this song show up every time Spotify decides my daylist needs to be from the equestrian mix. You'd think it would give me more country music, but no. It gives me horse girl music and those are two very different things. This music video has some fascinating elements to it. I'm not entirely sure what the specific flavor of storyline this is, I'm thinking some kind of heist and I'm getting some dystopia or superhero vibes from it (definitely on the Steelheart side of superheroes rather than the Avengers though). But I love the billboard. That's such a clever little detail that you may not notice if you're only looking at the members (which is fair). And apparently this makes IVE the first group in 2026 to achieve a PAK for BANG BANG, making it their sixth.