Song Review:: VVS: AFTER HOURS- BOTTLE$

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  • Release date: 2026 August 19
  • Album tracklist: MIXIN' THANGS - FLW$ Version, V.V.$, $TAY THE NIGHT - FLW$ Version, A$K, BOTTLE$ - FLW$ Version, COUNT IT UP, DA$H, Y.O.U,  BOTTLE$, MIXIN' THANGS, VAMO$, $TAY THE NIGHT
  • Album runtime: 16 minutes

 Well, this is an interesting development with this group. They're now independent, which is curious enough, but they're independent with their former CEO serving as their creative director and main producer. That part has me raising my eyebrows and tilting my head. Curious. Very curious. On top of that, one of the members has left the group. She's the main vocalist of the group, so that's a blow to the others and they'll have to step up. I'm fully supportive of the decision to leave as she decided she didn't like the idol lifestyle with the training and the hours well-enough to stay, which is completely fair. I applaud her for realizing it fairly early and bowing out. And we're on Underage Protocol until next May. And in case anyone heard the news about VVS disbanding, that was VVS the boy group, not VVS the girl group. Which, again, if you remember my first post on this group, I pointed out that the name was already being used both by a boy group and also by the fanclub for VANNER and I asked why the company couldn't have done a tiny bit of research on that and named them something else. Which is why their tag is weird because I have to specify when I'm talking about the girl group and not the boy group or vice versa. Also, I have no idea which is actually the title track of this album, but this has a music video and I did not cover it before so I'll do it now.

The repetition in the instrumental is grating against me. There are some spots where the composition of the instrumental changes, which I'm incredibly grateful for, and the sound of the beat does change. But overall, this is not a happy sound for my brain, so I'm also kind of grateful for them being on Underage Protocol so that I don't accidentally listen to this more than I have to. It's a very sparse instrumental, but a little more grating and abrasive than I like. 

And again, the group is on Underage Protocol, which makes the language being used slightly more alarming. This is a very rap heavy song that is not traditionally something that I typically lean towards normally, but the repetition here is unpleasant for me. The sound of the hard consonants is being used objectively well.

Okay. I've learned a couple of things. This specific song only features members who are over twenty-one (focusing on the two rappers who are now only one because another member left the group so they're down to four), so I feel a lot better about the lyrics, which has the added benefit of this specific song not being on Underage Protocol. The maknae, who is the reason why the group is on Underage Protocol because she's still underage and was fifteen at debut, is only in the music video for about a second and barely visible. It's a vibes and visuals music video that is tied in with their usual storyline of crimes and scams. Ocean's 11 style.

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