Stray Youngsters introduced their newest mini album effectively upfront, first teasing it with the discharge of its opening observe Run It again in June. That track supplied an fascinating department away from the core Stray Youngsters sound, trying a extra World Cup, anthemic vitality. I believed this may imply they’d take a giant swerve with This & That, however the track seems to be fairly just like previous efforts.

I can’t begrudge a bunch constructing upon their signature sound. In any case, that’s what I’ve urged so a lot of my favourite acts to do! This & That affords no actual surprises or evolution of the Stray Youngsters sound we all know. In actual fact, it’s a reasonably tame model of it. The hook has a laidback hip-hop vibe, catchy however not distinctive sufficient to face out among the many many teams peddling one thing related. It builds itself across the easy, senseless repetition that has made ATEEZ’s Dangerous such an sudden hit this summer time, so possibly the identical will occur right here. For me, all of it turns into fairly monotonous. The refrain most likely sounds higher clipped out and shoved in a TikTok video.

Fortunately, the manufacturing is extra dynamic than the songwriting. Whereas the instrumental doesn’t boast a lot apparent development all through the observe, its industrial beat provides the group one thing enjoyable to play with. It jogs my memory of the textures SM Leisure have a tendency to make use of with their hip-hop tracks and I might simply hear any NCT unit performing this. Stray Youngsters have sufficient particular person persona to make it their very own however don’t actually capitalize on that right here. This flattens what might have been a really dynamic piece.

Grade: C