Song Review:: Treasure: NEW WAV- IF I

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  • Release date: 2026 June 01

  • Album tracklist: IF I, ZOOM ZOOM, NALLY-NA (HYUNHAYO), DANGER

  • Album runtime: 11 minutes

 YG doesn't have the best track record of keeping older groups around and active when they debut a new one. At least with the boy groups they don't actively describe the upcoming group as "the next [insert older group that they've disbanded here]" as they famously did with a pair of their girl groups. So when I heard the announcement about the new boy group debuting this year, y'all I was stressed for Treasure. I'm pleased that they dropped the mini album and I'm also pleased that I haven't heard rumors that they'll go the way of 2NE1, which is just silly considering how much most people love seeing the senior groups interacting with the kids, especially when they're at the same company. Exhibit A: 2PM and Stray Kids. (It would be super fun to have BIGBANG do stuff with Treasure while they're prepping for their tour. Dance challenges if nothing else. Just saying.) Also, at least the title track is three minutes long. Also, I'm amused by the aggression of one of the songs being called "danger" in all caps. And it's the shortest one.

Was that a violin right at the beginning? I'm going to assume it wasn't because I don't hear it again the entire song, and it would be absolutely wild to have a single violin note on its own track in a song. We've got kind of a heavy beat underneath the skittering beat and the synth, which does make me hope for some big choreography to match it. We get some interesting spots that sound like they might be a cappella, but there are also a couple of spots that have a very sparse instrumental, which gives the song a good rhythm in the variation. It doesn't quite have the melody that I like in the instrumental, but that's fine. And I'm about to say something that might be controversial, but there's a stretch of the instrumental that sounds like DJ Slider. If you understand that, you are my people.

Putting caffeine and dopamine right next to each other in the song is wild. This is the kind of song I expect Treasure to give us, which is odd considering that most of their other songs I've heard have not been like this. This is a rap heavy song, which typically isn't my favorite thing, but we've got a couple different versions and styles of rapping going on here, which I do appreciate. Some is a bit more aggressive. Some is a bit more laid-back. The variation is good.

Hold up, is this in English? This is in English. Huh. My "as low as you can get for an auditory learner" score is coming in clutch today apparently. In other news, we get another music video added to the list of "music videos in black and white" challenges. I'm trying to decide what flavor of storyline we've got going on here. It does feel a bit apocalyptic though, so there is that.

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