Following an eight-month wait for CRAVITY's triumphant return, they're back with some very new looks and part one of their first full album titled The Awakening: Written In The Stars. Previous title track “My Turn” introduced CRAVITY's penchant for cars, and their new title track “Gas Pedal” drives that sentiment home (no pun intended) in a way that only they could make sense of.

“GAS PEDAL”

The song’s translated lyrics, frankly, don’t do much to help me understand what the song is about, but with a title like “Gas Pedal,” one can assume it’s essentially about working hard and flooring it to reach your dreams, so to speak. There’s a few lines that support this, such as Wonjin and Minhee’s respective lyrics:

    “Follow the stars, higher than normal, we climbin'”

and

    “Reach out to the unreachable limit.”

The chorus lyrics complement, and may even rival, “My Turn”’s catchy “vroom vroom vroom skrrt” by simply repeating “gas pedal, gas pedal, gas pedal,” which will absolutely—like 100%, no doubt—get stuck in your head. Additionally, “Gas Pedal”’s chorus is actually one of the most interesting parts of the song, because it’s hardly there at all. While in most songs the chorus is usually the part that hits hardest, here it’s quite the opposite—yet it still manages to be memorable. 

CRAVITY’s music videos tend to focus largely on choreography and careful individual shots of the members’ pretty faces, and “Gas Pedal” is no different. In a bit newer fashion, this music video takes on some cyberpunk influences, with performance clips on a red grid background and in a neon-lit alleyway, as well as shots of Serim, Taeyoung, and Seongmin wired to a table. The cyberpunk elements are hinted the rest of the time by red-filtered shots and the boys' outfits with reflective detailing, as is the nature of the genre.

THE AWAKENING: WRITTEN IN THE STARS

This album contains eight new songs, including the title track. As a whole, there’s a consistent high energy throughout which allows for a pretty seamless listening experience. That's not to say they stick to only one note, however, as this energy is maintained through very contrasting songs from, say, the synth-heavy “CHINGA-LINGA” to the more contemporary pop sound of “Divin’.” The only point where there’s a noticeable change in tone is “GO GO,” which appropriately winds it down just a bit as the final track.

All in all, I’m impressed. CRAVITY has an endearing and very cool youthfulness to their music which shines through here just as well as usual, but this album also stands as a decent selection to showcase their range—which we can be sure will only carry through the second half upon release.