Call Me Baby

Leaner and more urgent than its sibling tracks in EXO's mid-period catalog, this one leads with a driving, tension-coiled verse that feels almost anxious before the chorus opens into something warmer and more declarative. The production strips back the orchestral excess sometimes associated with the group and leans into a funk-adjacent groove — choppy guitar licks, a thumping bass line that moves forward with real purpose, electronic fills that pop and crackle at the edges. The vocal performances carry a particular kind of hunger, not desperate but insistent, the kind of energy that comes from wanting something specific and refusing to be vague about it. The emotional arc is about urgency of connection — a demand to be recognized, to have the relationship named and confirmed. It arrived during a period when SM was recalibrating its flagship groups toward a sleeker, more globally legible pop sound, and this track sits at that hinge point, still bearing traces of the maximalist idol-pop tradition while reaching toward something more contemporary. Best experienced on the move — a commute where you need to feel like the world is yours to claim, or a gym session where the tempo matches the ambition you're running on.