Kitsch

"Kitsch" is the most playful IVE has ever sounded, and the contrast with their usual aesthetic gravity is precisely what makes it work. The production borrows from early 2000s synth-pop and disco — glittery keyboards, a bouncing bassline that almost winks at you, handclap percussion that sounds lifted from a roller rink in 1979 and then passed through a modern filter. The tempo is brisk without being frantic, the arrangement deliberately retro without feeling like pastiche — it understands the originals well enough to treat them as a foundation rather than a costume. Vocally, the members sound genuinely at ease here, leaning into a lighter, more conversational register than their more theatrical releases demand. There's a playfulness in the phrasing, a looseness in the delivery, that suggests the song was actually fun to make. Lyrically, it leans into self-aware contradiction — embracing things considered odd or excessive, wearing the label of "kitsch" as its own kind of pride. The message is about loving without apology, including yourself. Culturally it sits at an interesting junction: the same group known for high-concept seriousness choosing, deliberately, to be a little goofy and bright. It's a song for summer afternoons, for drives with the windows down, for the particular joy of not trying to be cool and feeling better for it.