3/4/2026 Going Through a RIIZE Single, Backwards

So it has been a while... I'm sorry... I have been very busy and stressed. I should probably make shorter blog posts from now on.

So, "Fame" by RIIZE. This was the group's last Korean comeback, in November of 2025. I anticipated it with bated breath. In the end I fear for the most part I was a little disappointed. For the sake of positivity, though, I want to review the songs of the single in reverse order, because the first song is my favorite and the third my least favorite. 

Sticky Like

The day on which this song was released was a mediocre mudpit of a day and I had no patience for anything that wouldn't astonish me. "Sticky Like", unfortunately, is not astonishing at all.

There are many nice things about it, I'm realizing upon listening to it again. The piano melody that underscores the song adds a little richness that couldn't be lent to it by guitar. I like the leisurely beat. I like the lovely high innocence of Sohee and Anton's voices, especially the "echo, echo, echo" line that bleeds into the next phrase. But nothing else really hits. It's just a pretty version of a song I have heard over and over again.

Only an EXO-like focus on beauty and originality of melody could have saved this, in my opinion. There's one pretty part in the first verse, delivered of course by Sohee; otherwise there's not much here to redeem the raps. The rapping was a low point in this album, as we will see with "Fame". I'm so sad - I really like Sungchan. I think his rap is the best part of "Bag Bad Back"! This does not cut it, though.

I may very well revise my opinion on this one - I haven't listened to it as much. I also must acknowledge that my standards are high. If any other fifth-gen boy group released "Sticky Like", I would be very happy. RIIZE just happen to be my favorites of this generation. 

And that, paradoxically, has led to me finally putting this song on my playlist.

Fame

I should not have been as frightened as I was when I first heard that "Fame" was going to be a rage rap song. All modern global pop is taken from Black culture, whether African or U.S. or U.K., but I feared an egregious level of poser-ism in a hip-hop song. Something All Day Project-esque. Something Cortis-esque. Thankfully I was wrong. While this does not necessarily preclude cultural appropriation, RIIZE are relatively musically conservative. In K-pop, I've observed, a lot of "boundary-pushing" groups are more inclined to borrow heavily from Black culture, probably for shock value, as if doing so is inherently scandalous. This is just my perspective, and I do not want to discourage breaking barriers and taking influence from around the globe. I also don't mean to insult RIIZE - I think they do unique things in other ways.

I said in a review of the more evil "FE!N" knockoff "Knife" by Enhypen that "Fame" is held back by its popiness. The instrumental is good, but it does not hit hard enough. The lyrics are angsty, but they are not angsty enough. The raps - are bad.

[Shotaro] Super hard (Super hard), make it loud (Make it loud)
What kind of day (Breathe, breathe) do you want? Yeah
[Sungchan] Not just the outward appearance, but the real me
Burst, I’m only here now, bass go boom, boom, boom, boom (Boom) 

I am so sorry. Shotaro's part belongs in a semi-comedic song like "Just Right" by GOT7. Sungchan's delivery on "moseup" (모습) is an echo of the uniqueness of his rap in "Bad Bag Back", but the "bass go boom" part obscures it like a cloud of evil. Why was it added? What relevance does it have besides being a reference? Was the melody for this song written in thirty minutes?

Indeed it feels like it. Little care for originality is put into any part of the melody of this song, least of all the chorus. Sohee's famous "pass me the key" part at the end of the second verse is barely anticipated and terminated abruptly, making it sound like an unsuccessful stand-in for a bridge. 

"Fame", however, is relistenable, partially because it's the only rage rap K-pop boy group song I can listen to without feeling a little weird. The other part comes from the passion in the members' voices - I've gotten used to Eunseok's silly little deep-voiced rap, and I will say that Anton put his all into this (didn't like "shot shot, flashlight", though). Also every time a flashlight is mentioned in a RIIZE song (three times so far) I think they're saying "fleshlight" and I giggle.

Also also the dance is fucking flames, especially the outro, in which they all follow Shotaro in waves. Fuck, can these young men dance!

Something's in the Water

I want to get my one big criticism of this song out of the way - I expected it to flow more. The first and last thirds of the song were featured in a trailer for the single, with only a few changes made to those parts of it. I thought some of the choices made, such as the instrumental halt on the first "water", were for narrative purposes, like how songs featured in movie trailers are often rearranged. That this part is the same in the release isn't necessarily bad - I just think it would be cooler if it was even more different, you know?

Even that is a tiny problem. Rewatching the trailer, I find all my initial excitement returning. This is peak. Everyone's voice sounds beautiful. I don't think Sohee is capable of delivering a line without that exquisite elastic sensitivity with which he sings "nuneul gamgo breathe, running all the way". I adore how Wonbin, whose voice can sound so harsh (and indeed does, later in the song), sings the first chorus so gently, in a way that flows evenly into the dark hollowness of Eunseok's voice. Anton's opening is just so perfect. Nothing can recreate the feeling of hearing it for the first time.

"I couldn't save us in time.
I don't do good by myself.
I should have you by my side."

It's so romantic, the way this guy delivers these lines, especially "I don't do good by myself." I believe him. I am buying this subtle Y/N-style K-pop boy fantasy. I also believe that second chorus "something wakes me up" even more than I believe Wonbin's first one. Fuck, dude, this is peak. I told you these boys are talented. Listen to that ad-lib after the first chorus and those harmonies at the end.

I do not even care that this song is less than two minutes and twenty-two seconds. There, I said it. I think a song like this deserves to be tragically trampled by a horse in its youth. I would have liked it to go on for eighty verses, but that is not how life works. One can only contemplate one's reflection in the music building bathroom mirror for so long before you have to go to class. 

The tight composition combined with the real passion of its performers makes it feel so real in its semi-narrative nature - although feelings of self-doubt and insecurity are almost universal, as well as breakups, there's something obviously specific going on here. I'll give credit to "Fame" for this, too. I won't give shit to "Sticky Like".

"Something's in the Water" and "Fame" are, in reality, inseparable songs, and I will think of them fondly as a fun November emo interlude in RIIZE's early career. Although 2025 was a difficult year to be a fan, the fact that they released the song of the year ("Another Life") in May and proceeded to beat it in November makes me feel lucky to be alive. The world is beautiful.