My Fave Red Velvet Songs

This started off as an article about “Red Flavor”, then after discovering I didn’t really have much to say on “Red Flavor” or the album it’s from, I decided to switch to “Rookie”.

And at that point I decided to pivot completely from the Red Velvet fashion review series I was doing on here to just talk about the remaining RV songs I want to talk about in a fave article. Because really, after 2018, RV wasn’t hitting the same for me.

And after I ended up pausing the series temporarily, I kinda lost momentum for doing RV fashion reviews. I don’t create my articles the same way I did for “Power Up” like at all.

So yeah, I think this will be a good wrap up to the series. So songs that won’t be in this article because I’ve already covered them are “Psycho” and my first Red Velvet article that started it all, “Power Up“.

So make sure to check those out if you haven’t seen my thoughts on those yet. Actually, I’m not sure if I’d say “Psycho” is one of my favorite Red Velvet title tracks. It’s fine, but I never listen to it. “Power Up” isn’t one I revisit much either, but it would be higher up my list than “Psycho”.

I wasn’t initially planning on having “Russian Roulette”, “Ice Cream Cake” and “Automatic” on this list because I’ve also covered them, but I changed my mind. So let’s get into it!

Be Natural

Be Natural feat Taeyong

I talked about “Be Natural” a few times on here already, most recently in my “Long Flight” article. But more from the perspective of being an NCTzen.

Long story short, during my first year of Kpop, 2015, Red Velvet was just having a comeback and slight lineup change.

I think technically “Be Natural” is their first comeback as a group, but to me “Ice Cream Cake” is really that. To me, that really started the era of RV as we know them now.

So while I was learning more about their previous releases, I stumbled across “Be Natural” which, for a few years, I had no idea it was a cover of S.E.S’ song “Be Natural“. They stayed incredibly close to the original.

I think this was the point where I thought I picked a side. Red Velvet has always had a dual concept. Bright and dark concepts. Nothing surprising there. But they really leaned into it.

That was one of the reasons why I loved “Ice Cream Cake” era so much, because you got a bright upbeat pop song and “Automatic” a slower paced R&B song and both were executed beautify.

This time around, with “Be Natural” and “Happiness” being separately promoted, I think was a test to see which would be better received. And that’s why for the first mini album, they did it the way they did.

I don’t listen to “Be Natural” much. Just whenever it pops up on shuffle, but I can’t skip including it on here. It’s just so important to me as a ReVeluv.

Ice Cream Cake

Ice Cream Cake

So you can read my thoughts on the fashion and choreography here. I talk a little bit about the music, but it’s just so damn catchy.

Jo Yoonkyung (the goat) and Kim Donghyun (we’ll talk about him later) worked on this track. Trinity Music and Hayley Aitken (who has an interesting catalog in Kpop along with her own music she’s made) are on here as well.

Automatic

I gushed about my love for “Automatic” here. Another banger from Daniel “Obi” Klein. If you know, you know.

The Red

Dumb Dumb

Man, when the RV titles slap, they slap HARD. “Dumb Dumb” is a classic. I can’t help but to get excited and turn it up when it pops up. I love the way this music video plays out from start to finish.

The choreography is amazing. The styling is pretty good. Not the best for Red Velvet but memorable to this specific era in time.

“Dumb Dumb” is just so catchy, fun, and relatable. The vocals in this song:

The lines in this song? Seo Jieum did it again. There’s a Kim Donghyun credited too for lyrics, but from Discogs, it looks like he’s worked with mostly SM artists.

A different person from the AB6IX member, lol. LDN Noise and Ryan S. Jhun are also on here, not surprising. I swear the same like five people work on my favorite SME songs.

Red Dress

“Red Dress” is another LDN Noise and Ryan S. Jhun song (others on here too, those are just the main ones I’m highlighting). I didn’t know that prior to working on this article. Back when I was listening to this album constantly, I listened to “Red Dress” so much.

Still upbeat and bright. A tune.

Ladies Room

A perfect follow-up to “Red Dress”. The harmonies on this song are super addicting. This is like one of those fun songs to have on while you’re getting dressed to go out on a girl’s night or a concert, somewhere fun. You know it’s gonna be an adventure.

Ryan S.Jhun and LDN Noise are back along with Jo Yoonkyung on lyrics. My favorite b-side on this album.

Time Slip

Second favorite b-side from The Red. “Time Slip” is such a chill song. Again, the harmonies on this song sell it for me. The vocals in the chorus and the instrumentals are the first things that come to my mind when I think about this song.

Daniel “Obi” Klein on the track 🥰. It’s gonna be a good time if Deekay is in the credits.

Russian Roulette

Russian Roulette

Same with “Russian Roulette”, you can read more here regarding the looks and music video.

Jo Yoonkyung again hard carrying this group lyrically. Love that for us.

Sunny Afternoon

Sometimes it’s difficult finding the official album versions of songs from artists. I tried another song from this album, but I couldn’t find an official version of that one either, so here’s a lyric video, lol.

My favorite b-side and really only other song on this album I love. I don’t listen to “Sunny Afternoon” that much, but it’s so good. I need to put it in rotation. I miss it.

Another fave producer/musician is on this track, Andreas Öberg is on here.

Rookie

Rookie

Still slaps. I remember at the time, people did NOT like this song. I loved it, immediately. We’re very much in the era of RV where you either loved this title tracks or you hated them. It was starting to feel like the Red vs Velvet battle was happening between ReVeluvs online.

Rookie was a pretty good album overall. I don’t think there’s one RV album where I love/saved every song on that album. The most is usually like 6-7 songs out of 10. The majority. Well Rookie I have 4/6.

So technically, this is my favorite Red Velvet album if we’re just looking at saved songs. I think that’s pretty accurate. The songs I don’t really listen to aren’t bad, just not songs I need to listen to again. Like “Little Little” is a good song, the vocals on the chorus are perfect. I just don’t love it to have it regularly in rotation.

“Last Love” is a boring ballad, and I’m picky with my ballads. This is a solid ass album. I think this was my peak Red Velvet fan era. I started falling off fandom wise, but still listening to every release.

Anyway, back to “Rookie”. Jo Yoonkyung is back, MZMC, and The Colleagues are on this track. I didn’t know at the time MZMC was on this song, but it makes sense. Same with Jo Yoonkyung. Anywhere there’s a title track, you can find them on there or sprinkled throughout the album.

Happily Ever After

I guess SM just doesn’t have all the albums up on YouTube like I thought they would. “Happily Ever After” is another red concept, and again it’s fun and upbeat. I used to listen to this one a lot, back when I was listening to this album more. Like back in 2017, mostly.

We have some Jam Factory peeps on this one. Along with Deez, and Trinity Music. Not as familiar with Trinity Music, but they also made my favorite song off this entire album, which will be our last Rookie song. Legends.

Talk To Me

Going through all these songs, I think I typically like the Reds songs more because they’re harder to mess up. It’s easy to make a catchy pop song. But a flawless velvet song? That’s hard if you’re not EXO, lol.

“Talk To Me” is like a hybrid. Not fully a velvet or a red song. I like that about it. You can dance or vibe to it, and both are completely fitting for the moment.

Body Talk

“Body Talk” is one of my favorite Red Velvet songs ever. When the velvet songs hit, they hiiit. The just do. I love the production of this song. It was one of those songs I felt, after my first listen, I shifted into a different timeline. Things just weren’t the same after that.

Highly recommend checking this one out if you’re new to Red Velvet and their b-sides.

Misfit was on another RV song, “Time Slip” and it totaaaally makes sense. I didn’t include her in that segment because I didn’t think it was noteworthy, but I was wrong, lol. We’re keeping an eye on you, Misfit 🕵🏾‍♀️.

A midtempo track with R&B elements to it, of course it’s my favorite song on the album.

The Red Summer

Red Flavor

Ah, “Red Flavor” what a summer tune. Such an earworm. Summer hasn’t really started until this song pops up. I love it. Another bop by Kenzie. I don’t really have much else to say on it. This was the only song from this album that I cared about.

Perfect Velvet and The Perfect Velvet

Peek-A-Boo

I didn’t like “Peek-A-Boo” at first. It took a while to grow on me. But the music video was a slay for me. I love a good horror moment. We love a full circle story.

We love a call back to previous releases. Joy is my favorite member, so it was great seeing her in that rainbow dress and breaking everyone’s bias list. Another Kenzie made track.

I Just

Another RV song that is a top tier song. One of my fave RV songs ever. I’m glad we got a video for it. I love these selfie videos.

I had no idea Hitchhiker worked on this one. I guess I like more of his stuff than I realized, lol.

Look

“Look” is another song I need to put back in rotation. I forgot how much I enjoy this one. Daniel “Obi” Klein is on this one too, of course.

I need more of these, like 80s synth songs for the girls. I’m here for it.

Perfect 10

Yeah, this is just me remembering how much I love this album. I don’t love all the songs, but the ones that hit are God tier. We’re jamming to all these songs again.

Daniel “Obi” Klein is on this one too, omggg.

About Love

Ahhhhh I can’t believe I forgot about this one too! I used to listen to this one a lot too. Joombas, lalala Studios, and January 8 are the geniuses behind this one.

Bad Boy

My favorite title track to date. They aren’t doin it like this anymore. She’s that girl!!!!

“Bad Boy” is for the girls who loved and supported “Automatic” when it dropped. It was good karma. We wooooooooon, plus the English version is just as good. Another rare win in Kpop.

The styling is wonderful, the music video as a whole is probably my third favorite music video they’ve done. Just perfection, 100/10 1000/10 they did the damn thing. There was a shift in the universe when this song dropped. The world wasn’t so bad for a brief period.

The way this song STILL hold up so well. ICONIQUE.

We have some more legends returning on this one. Makeumine Works, The Sterotypes, and Yoo Youngjin to name a few.

All Right

Another 80s vibe song. Love to see it. Jam Factory is a noteworthy mention as far as production wise.

A tuuune.

The ReVe Festival: Day 1

LP

Remember when I was talking about starting to fall off from Red Velvet? This was one of the few songs I liked during that drought.

This felt like going back to their roots. And it makes sense because Seo Jieum and Ryan S. Jhun are some of the people who worked on this one.

The ReVe Festival: Day 2

Eyes Locked, Hands Locked (눈 맞추고, 손 맞대고)

The ONLY boring ballad you’ll see on this list, but it’s totally worth it. God tier song. One of my favorite RV songs ever.

It’s more of a midtempo ballad. I’ve talked a bit about RV’s vocals, but they really shine on this one. If someone was looking for a deep cut that was unexpected, this would be at the top of the list.

Sumin and one half of MeloMance, Jeong Donghwan are credited on this track.

Okay, now for our last album!

The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm

Beg For Me

I hated that I didn’t like “Feel My Rhythm” more. But the songs I did love from this album are all back to back, starting with this one with our queen Jo Yoonkyung on lyrics.

The lite baddie vibes here, chefs kiss.

BAMBOLEO

Another return to form. I need to listen to these songs more, actually. I pretty much listened to them once while listening to the album initially. Then again for this article, to make sure I wanted to include them.

I try not to include too many songs on these lists that I don’t listen to regularly or haven’t run into the ground. But honestly, I haven’t really been listening to Red Velvet lately. SO this was a nice refresher.

And even though I haven’t listened to some of these in a while, they are ones I recommend to check out.

Good, Bad, Ugly

Our last song for the list. Probably my most listened to out of the bunch on this album. I love this one for the same reasons. The melody, harmonies, and overall catchy-ness.

Idk why this one stood out more than “Beg For Me” and “BAMBOLEO” when it comes to replay value. I just need to put all these back in rotation. I’m going back to listening to RV more.

That’s the takeaway from this article, lol.

I knew this article would take a bit to complete, but nowhere near as long as that NCT article, omggg. I’m so happy to get back to talking about Red Velvet. I missed them!! I still want the US tour.

Anyway, what are y’alls favorite Red Velvet songs? Are you a newer RV fan or have you been around for years now? Let me know in the comments, I’m curious. Next up is Jonghyun and my 200th article on ATK 🥳.

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Take care!

Ash🍰