C9 Entertainment's EPEX has made their first comeback, and it's a total 180 from their debut. With releases named Bipolar Pt. 1 Prelude of Anxiety and now Bipolar Pt. 2 Prelude of Love, the conceptual storytelling explains the hard swerve in style and genre, and they've done well to garner some intrigue with their representation of manic and depressive episodes—a weirdly lucid portrayal of the titular disorder.

TITLE TRACK: “DO 4 ME”

If I didn't know it was EPEX, I wouldn't have known it was EPEX when the first teaser for their new title track "Do 4 Me" dropped. Previous title "Lock Down" was visually dark and sonically gritty with its trap production and lyrics describing the crumbling state of mind of young people surviving on social media through the COVID-19 pandemic. "Do 4 Me" flips their image entirely with a vibrant color palette, cute choreography, and cuter styling (see: Baekseung’s pink hair and Ayden’s cat paws). Yes, the whimsy comes through with no barriers, at least by comparison, and it's a delight to behold—even when lyrics like, "I don't even sleep that much" accompany clips of Wish furiously texting heart emojis with no response.

If the concept clash wasn't enough, "Do 4 Me" couldn't sound less like "Lock Down" or any of their previous songs for that matter. Once again, if I didn't know it was EPEX, I wouldn't have known it was EPEX. "Do 4 Me" comes in with a funky little bassline that carries throughout, and it's actually pretty solid. This one is upbeat, it's fun, and it's dance-y, and my only real critique is that it's still a little hard to tell their voices apart. Their individuality will come through eventually, but for now we'll just have to watch the video a hundred times to be sure.

With four new tracks including "Do 4 Me," the whole EP follows suit as far as being cute and poppy overall. If you were into the more hip-hop and R&B-influenced nature of their first EP, this one may not be for you, though that's not a green light to write them off forever—we clearly can't expect what might be coming next.