''Queendom'' is the sixth

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

and by South Korean girl group Red Velvet. Marketed as the group's sixth "

mini album A mini-LP or mini-album is a short vinyl record album or LP, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered full-length. It is distinct from an EP due to containing more tracks and a slightly longer running length. A ...

" release, it consists of six tracks, including the lead single of the same name. The EP was released digitally by

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies where it was established in 1995 by record executive and record producer Lee Soo-man. The company ha ...

on August 16, 2021, and physically on August 17, 2021.

Background and release

On June 9, 2021, SM Entertainment announced that Red Velvet would be making their comeback in August with a new album. From July 26 to August 1, Red Velvet held a promotional event titled "Queens Mystic General Store" through their Instagram account leading up to their seventh debut anniversary and anticipated comeback. The promotional event showcased props used in their previous music videos, and was intended to heighten the anticipation for the announcement of their comeback and release of their promotional schedule. On August 2, it was announced that Red Velvet would be releasing their sixth extended play titled ''Queendom'', containing six tracks. The extended play is marketed by SM Entertainment as the group's sixth "mini album". On August 3, the promotional schedule for their comeback was released, which included concept photos, promotional posters, and a teaser of the upcoming music video for the title track "Queendom". The EP was released digitally on August 16, and physically the following day.

Composition

''Queendom'' consists of six songs and incorporates various genres such as

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

, R&B, and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

. The title track " Queendom" was described as a

song with a "refreshing atmosphere". The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

track "

Pose Human positions refer to the different physical configurations that the human body can take. There are several synonyms that refer to human positioning, often used interchangeably, but having specific nuances of meaning. *''Position'' is a gen ...

" was described as an "up-tempo

pop dance Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

" song with an "impressive energetic bass line" and "fast-changing drum". "Knock on Wood" was musically described as a "fairytale-like

electro-punk Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

" song with lyrics that detail the "hope to get someone to like you" as well as "the act of

knocking on wood Knocking on wood (also phrased touching wood) is an apotropaic tradition of literally touching, tapping, or knocking on wood, or merely stating that one is doing or intending to do so, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favorable pre ...

for good luck". "Better Be" was called a "witty R&B pop" song characterized by Red Velvet's "dreamy vocals and rich harmonies" and lyrically described as "not giving up easily to the person you like". "Pushin' N Pullin" was described as a "medium-tempo pop R&B" song with a "friendly and gentle message" and lyrics that "tell us to trust in the time we spent together with the person who is pushed with anxiety in relationship". "Hello, Sunset" is a "slow-tempo

R&B ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. Cur ...

" that "creates a late summer sensibility", characterized by a "subtle drum rhythm, refreshing electric guitar, and dreamy piano performance" and lyrics about a "confession" of being together with loved ones.

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''Queendom'' received positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a

mean There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the ''arithme ...

score of 74 based on 5 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rhian Daly from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' described the EP as "playing it safe; cautiously dipping a toe back in the water rather than making a big splash to signal their return". Joshua Minsoo Kim writing for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' called the EP "perfectly adequate, but the release itself never reaches the group's former heights" and "doesn't overflow with excellence". He further added that the title track "rarely offers the quintet the chance to flaunt their vocal prowess", feeling it is "too low-key" and "frustratingly one-dimensional" while labelling other songs on the EP "similarly unambitious, but a couple of its other songs at least have everything in order". Overall, he stated the EP "both falters and thrives in simplicity" and gave it a score of 6.7 out of 10. Ana Clara Ribeiro from ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' described the EP as

crème brûlée ''Crème brûlée'' or ''crème brulée'' (; ), also known as burnt cream or Trinity cream, and virtually identical to the original crema catalana, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar ...

, comparing the dessert's "simplicity and accessibility in its taste" to Red Velvet's music. Overall, she stated the EP "not all songs from ''Queendom'' will be most listened by the fans, and it's not because any of these songs are poor" while explaining that we "don't eat dessert because we need basic nutrients for our body" but because we want to "taste something delicious and ''Queendom'' tastes delicious". JT Early from ''

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'' described the EP as "an all-killer summer project exploring the themes of empowerment, romance and its accompanying obstacles". and stated the EP "ticks all the boxes that fans would want" and has "great replay value".

Year-end lists

Commercial performance

In South Korea, the EP debuted at number 2 on the

Gaon Album Chart The Circle Album Chart, previously known as the Gaon Album Chart, is a record chart ranking the 100 most popular albums, extended plays and single albums in South Korea based on their Record sales, pure sales. It is a part of the Circle Chart, pr ...

in the chart issue dated August 15–21, 2021. In the United Kingdom, the EP debuted at number 17 on the

UK Digital Albums The UK Album Downloads Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the music industry. Since July 2015, the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, with the chart date given as the following Thursday. The chart was introdu ...

in the chart issue dated August 20, 2021. In Japan, the EP debuted at number 41 on ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine ''Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence from ''Bi ...

'' Hot Albums in the chart issue dated August 25, 2021. In the United States, the EP debuted at number 16 and 11 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s

Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

and World Albums chart, respectively, in the chart issue dated August 28, 2021.

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the EP. Musicians * Red Velvet (

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), the Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United Stat ...

Seulgi Seul-ki, also spelled Seul-gi or Sul-ki, is a Korean unisex given name, predominantly feminine. It was the 8th-most popular name for baby girls born in South Korea in 1990. Unlike most Korean names, it does not have any Sino-Korean vocabulary, Sin ...

Wendy Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...

Joy The word joy refers to the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, and is typically associated with feelings of intense, long lasting happiness. Dictionary definitions Dictionary definitions of joy typically include a sense of ...

Yeri Yeri may refer to: * Yeri, Cyprus * Yeri, Tajikistan *Yeri (singer) (born Kim Ye-rim, 1999), South Korean female singer, member of Red Velvet. *Yery Yeru or Eru (Ы ы; italics: ), usually called Y in modern Russian or Yery or Ery historic ...

) – vocals , background vocals * Jo Yoon-kyung – Korean lyrics *

Lee Seu-ran Jam Factory () is a South Korean music publisher which sources song tunes and lyrics for K-pop, J-pop and Mandopop artists from songwriters predominantly based in the US. Writers of the tunes are often songwriters for American companies, such as ...

– Korean lyrics * Seo Ji-eum – Korean lyrics * Kim In-hyeong (

Jam Factory Jam Factory may refer to: *Jam Factory (band), an American soul music group from Syracuse, New York, active in the 1970s *Jam Factory (music publisher), a South Korean music publisher *The Jam Factory, a shopping and entertainment centre in the Mel ...

) – Korean lyrics * Kenzie – Korean lyrics , background vocals * Choi Bo-ra (153Joombas) – Korean lyrics * minGtion – composition , arrangement , bass , piano , synthesizer * Anne Judith Stokke Wik – composition , background vocals * Moa "Cazzi Opeia" Carlebecker – composition , arrangement , background vocals * Ellen Berg – composition , background vocals * – composition , arrangement * – composition , arrangement * Ylva Dimberg – composition , arrangement , background vocals * Moonshine – composition , arrangement *

Andreas Öberg Andreas Öberg (born 6 August 1978) is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, and music producer. Music career Öberg was born in Stockholm on 6 August 1978. When he was seven, he took classical guitar lessons at school. He played electric guitar wh ...

– composition , arrangement *

Skylar Mones Skylar Mones is an American songwriter, record producer, engineer, and arranger. Skylar’s professional music career began in 2010 doing remixes, engineering and production for Flo Rida, Adam Lambert, Diggy Simmons, and Rihanna. He garnered comme ...

– composition , arrangement * Michele Wylen – composition * Mike Daley – composition , arrangement * Mitchell Owens – composition , arrangement * Nicole Cohen – composition * Sam Klempner – composition , arrangement * Noémie Legrand – composition *

Dewain Whitmore Jr. Dewain Whitmore Jr. is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and vocal producer based in Los Angeles, California. Signed to Disney Music Publishing, he has worked with numerous popular acts, including Chris Brown, Nick Jonas, DNC ...

– composition *Mike Park – drum Technical * minGtion – directing , digital editing * Kriz – vocal directing * Seo Mi-rae (ButterFly) – vocal directing , Pro Tools operation * Kim Yeon-seo – vocal directing * Kenzie – directing * Chu Dae-gwan – vocal directing * Lee Min-kyu – recording , mixing engineer , mixing * Noh Min-ji – recording , digital editing , mixing engineer * Kwon Yu-jin – recording , digital editing * Lee Jeong-bin – recording * Kim Chul-soon – recording , mixing * Jeong Eui-seok – recording , digital editing , mixing * Kang Sun-young – recording * Jung Yoo-ra – digital editing * Ahn Chang-kyu – digital editing * Kang Eun-ji – mixing engineer * Namkoong Jin – mixing * Lee Ji-hong – mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

Notes

References

{{Red Velvet 2021 EPs Korean-language EPs Red Velvet (group) EPs SM Entertainment EPs