Review: Red Velvet Return With A Serious Sugar Rush On The Irresistible 'Ice Cream Cake' [VIDEO]

Seven months since their debut and five months after their last release, Red Velvet are back with a new sound that might stop your heart, but not because of the sugar content.

On their new single "Ice Cream Cake," released on Sunday, Red Velvet deliver a barrage of different sonic textures that are excitingly difficult to pin down.

Referencing everyone from Gwen Stefani to Kraftwerk this five-member K-pop girl group is clearly at their best when they are taking chances musically and kicking the energy up to maximum velocity.

If you are a fan of South Korean pop music that was drawn in by the daring musical mashups of Psy or Girls' Generation, "Ice Cream Cake" delivers every intriguing move you could want from a shiny new pop song, but there is also something else.

This band has a strength and versatility that is also apparent in the other single released Sunday, "Automatic." Though Red Velvet proves how easy they can fit into a slick modern R&B context on "Automatic," there is something deeply arresting about the feel of "Ice Cream Cake."

It should be added that the music video for "Ice Cream Cake," featuring the girls doing their dance routines in the desert, is as visually daring as anything currently on the K-pop charts. And like the song itself, its most exciting quality is how ambitious it is.

Mixing haunting choral vocals with a driving electro drum beat, jazz vibraphone sounds and rapid fire vocals, Red Velvet and their team of producers are clearly not working with anything new.

But, by throwing out the rulebook for how a pop song has to be constructed and merely going with whatever works from all spectrums of music, Red Velvet have made some magic that is ready to be danced to.

Watch the music video for "Ice Cream Cake" the new single from K-pop girl group Red Velvet RIGHT HERE

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Red Velvet
Ice Cream Cake
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