REVIEW: Daring to Crave Change in a World that’s Not Yet Home, CRAVITY Triumphs.
Photo: Starship Entertainment
With the gumption of five-year industry veterans and the hunger of rookies, CRAVITY, reborn and rebranded, finds home in Dare to Crave, a story of rebirth, identity, and belonging. The result? A bold, deeply personal, twelve track coming of age journey that is nothing shy of stunning.
When Starship Entertainment’s five-year boy group CRAVITY debuted in April 2020, the group had all the trappings of stars, with two former X1 members and a nine-member lineup that marked the company’s first boy group since breakout success MONSTA X’s 2015 debut. In the five-years since CRAVITY’s highly anticipated debut, the group has yet to find the same success of their seniors, in no small part due to their early pandemic debut and uncertain foothold in an industry so often hostile to scrappy newcomers.
Over the course of five years, finding identity was the group’s ultimate challenge, resulting in dramatic sonic shifts from frenzied noisier tracks to upbeat dance-numbers, to more emotional beat-driven rock ballads. With a career battered by internal and external uncertainty, the last year has shifted the tides for the group, both in their landmark victory in K-Pop group survival show Road to Kingdom: ACE of ACE in November 2024, musically lush 2024 releases Evershine and Find the Orbit, and now, the release of their second full length album Dare to Crave.
Dare to Crave is as risk-taking as it is novel, alighting on CRAVITY’s newly refined sound, at the risk of relinquishing what they’ve accomplished thus far. In daring to crave change, the group faces the risk of alienation or rejection by moving forward. The album resonates as a deeply personal, coming-of-age vignette, hand-selected and hand-crafted by a group on the cusp of something new, something big, and something different, for both them and the industry. And their new sound truly is hand-selected. This release marks the first time each of the nine-members participated in the production of their songs, with Serim, Woobin, and Wonjin all credited for various composition work and all nine members, Serim, Allen, Jungmo, Woobin, Wonjin, Minhee, Hyeongjun, Taeyoung, and Seongmin, credited for the album’s lyrics.
CRAVITY does not shy away from the novelty of their second full album, embracing the choice to crave change inside and out by launching the comeback promotions with a full rebrand: changing their logo, the origin of their name (once an amalgamation of “Creativity” and “Gravity”, now shifted to “Crave” and “Gravity”.) Starship Entertainment announced on June 4 that the group would shift from longtime leader Serim to dual leaders Wonjin and Hyeongjun, controversially later revealed to be a company-led decision rather than a group-led one, as part of the rebranding process.
It’s a season of change for the group, and a season of maturity, stepping up to the challenge of making the world take notice and find new excitement in a group that many have moved on from. In embracing this rebirth, CRAVITY shines anew on the world with an album that's a masterclass in music crafted in craving, hunger, and the desperation of an artist on the cusp of earthshaking discovery. In an industry knee-deep in the latest novelty, Dare to Crave is refreshing in its insatiable hunger to offer something true, something authentic, something as old and true to their identity as it is new.
Of course, one would be remiss to not mention the viral series of egg-driven concept images that took the internet by storm in the midst of their comeback preparations. Hatching from shells, CRAVITY took a conceptual, if a bit sticky, risk with their visual production. The message is clear: CRAVITY is reborn; watch out world. Subsequent concepts, featuring the members in a game of hide and seek of wine-stained, devouring grapes are as visually lush as they are connected. Together, CRAVITY tells the story of one choosing to be reborn into a new world, overcoming the fear of the unknown, and learning to crave true sustenance, and discover true identity. As bold as the visual direction is, the music flares in turn, meeting fire with fire with twelve tightly-produced, new takes on rock, funk, and synths, tackling head-on what it means for CRAVITY to be K-Pop.
The result? A lush musical and visual bildungsroman that dabbles in fresh, tight fuzz guitar riffs, poetic pop-rock ballads, and an ingenious blend of new and old, keeping the rock leanings that worked so well for CRAVITY in prior releases with a new “something” that is wholly innovative, and wholly reborn. Dare to Crave is by far CRAVITY’s best release, perhaps even the best K-Pop release of 2025, in this author’s opinion, with its unapologetic and unrelenting fervor to hunger for the best. The album never drops the ball across its 35 minutes. Spanning funk, rock, trap, synth, pop: each track smashes the CRAVITY you once knew out of the park. Their gambit paid off; or perhaps it was never a gambit to begin with, bold risk-taking forged in the confidence of songs that are just that good.
TRACKLIST:
“On My Way”
“SWISH”
“SET NET G0?!”*
“Rendez-vous”
“PARANOIA”
“Straight Up to Heaven” (Sung by JUNGMO, WOOBIN, SEONGMIN)
“Stadium” (Sung by ALLEN, WONJIN, HYEONGJUN)
“Marionette” (Sung by SERIM, MINHEE, TAEYOUNG)
“Underdog”
“Click, Flash, Pow”
“Love Me Again”
“Wish Upon a Star”
“On My Way”
A sprinting, inspirational acoustic-forward introduction, “On My Way” swings open the gates of the album with ease: “I might be a tiny dot in this vast universe. But I want to make my mark.” It leads the charge of the album, upright with perfect posture, as if to say: listen to our story, listen to our hunger, our audacity to crave to be more than we are, more than the sum of our parts: “this dream is my last one [...] I know that world is ours.”
“SWISH”
“SWISH” is this breakneck, bass-driven race of a rock song that builds and builds hypnotically. “SWISH” never falls too hard into a jarring rap verse or an easy-out melody. In an album that is nothing if not built of standouts, SWISH might be a winner, built for both the stage and your headphones, featuring layered vocals with their own, almost instrumental quality alongside percussive beats and a killer bass line. It's as deft in its production as it is frenetic with its beat. Speaking honestly? If there was one track to reach for in this coalition of an album as a standalone, it’s “SWISH.”
“Set Net G0?!” (Title)
Love it or hate it, it’s getting looped. Title track “Set Net G0?!” is a synth-rock dance track cultivated to have you reaching for more.
The track clocks in at a quick 2 minutes 45 seconds. While this runtime is symptomatic of so much contemporary pop, where cutting the bridge is the norm, “Set Net G0?!” plays with its own abbreviation. It’s self-aware, deviating from typical song structures and throwing you off every step of the way, but in a way that’s so ballsy, you have to embrace it. Featuring funk-forward verses that catch you off guard when you expect a chorus, a fuzz guitar hook, and minimal instrumentals matched to airy vocal riffs, “Set Net G0?!” is delicate in its own right, a tightly compact, precise little firecracker of a title, itching to implode on its own jenga-like tower of verses, hooks, and even a trap interlude, all popping out when you expect a chorus.
Somehow, somehow, it keeps it together, and in your own dizziness to figure out the song, you reach for it again and again. The song is webbed in summer fun, 70s funk, guitar cheekiness, coming-of-age audacity: a rebranding risk in its own right, but an addictive one at that. Often these short, loop-driven tracks that are designed to leave you clicking replay feel like a trick, an insidious tool to have you give another click. But, with “Set Net G0?!” it feels less insidious, more ingenious, a tightly woven song structure with a summer harmonic breeze.
Filmed in 8 millimeter film, an original choice for video production in K-Pop, “Set Net G0?!” camerawork features the boys on the cusp of a new world reborn and running amok, together. The boys face it head on, all saturated color grading and grainy character, bustling camerawork with a story that, while not on the nose, revels in artful shots and the makeup of brotherhood. It’s a story of exploration, of coming of age, as the members poke and prod their way through their new environment to discover a field of butterflies. It’s a simple story. While it occasionally slips through the cracks in the MV’s choice to lean into the type of cinematography that is a pure treat to the eye’s, the story is an authentic one, reveling in its own craving for the beauty of the world.
“Rendez-vous”
Levelheaded “Rendez-vous” winds its way in and over itself, with a structure that melds elevator pop with percussive quick beats and bossa nova lines. It’s a welcome breather between the quirky “Set Net G0?!” and the full-drama “PARANOIA”, a track that’s made for walking, with haste, to your destination (and potential rendezvous).
“PARANOIA”
Fresh out of the page of third gen K-Pop, “PARANOIA” serves that edgy, gritty desperation that feels like it was born in 2015 rather than 2025, in the best way possible. Another standout track from the album, “PARANOIA” harkens back to CRAVITY’s early work, all EDM drama and soaring vocals.
“Straight Up to Heaven” (sung by JUNGMO, WOOBIN, SEONGMIN)
Retro synth pop “Straight Up to Heaven” is a real gem, built for watching the clouds go by or letting the sun stream in from the windows. It’s a trio of characteristic vocalists: Seongmin’s distinct high twang, Jungmo’s somehow airy groundedness, and of course, main vocal Woobin’s power and expressiveness, all lend a genuine ethereal distinction to the easy-listening track. It’s a personal favorite and a beautiful one.
“Stadium” (Sung by ALLEN, WONJIN, HYEONGJUN)
Dance-forward “Stadium” is pop-funk at its boldest, with a catchy prechorus that feels as much a dance battle as a production. The type of song built for kickboxing or backflips, “Stadium” is great alone due to its performance factor, but also because it musically holds its own, when many dance-centered pieces tend towards weaker production or jarring cuts. “Stadium” is great, enough said.
“Marionette” (Sung by SERIM, MINHEE, TAEYOUNG)
Composed by member Serim, unit song “Marionette” is a sultry, mysterious song that embraces high-drama with yearning, with instrumentals like winding a toy up, ready to dance for you again. While it’s alleged to be the sexy track of the album (and perhaps is, since it hasn’t been performed yet), an initial listen feels like its as much desparation as sensuality. The long chords and glockenspiel percussion puppet the vocals and the listener, leading you to some long forgone conclusion.
“Underdog”
Gifted to CRAVITY by Jooheon of MONSTA X, who composed the song with them in mind, “Underdog” is the personification of the desperate craving that undercuts the entirety of Dare to Crave. A powerful rock ballad, reminiscent of a shounen anime opening or a fight song, “Underdog” bares its teeth with references across CRAVITY’s career, name dropping their debut “Break All the Rules” and their prior 2024 comeback “Now or Never.”
The song feels as personal to their journey as a self-produced track, holding CRAVITY’s self-realized message across Dare to Crave in its electric guitar riffs, introspective bridge, and pop-punk sucker punch core: that their own identity stems from the act itself of wanting to evolve. “I’m the underdog, you’ll see. I’m breaking through, just set me free.” “Underdog” underscores the questions CRAVITY set out across Dare to Crave and their rebranding journey: Who can we crave to become? And what can we do to show that to the world?
“Click, Flash, Pow”
Exactly as it sounds, “Click, Flash, Pow” is an editorial shoot of a song, all high-fashion catwalk flair and pounding electro synths. It has a welcome familiarity to it, reminiscent of past CRAVITY Bsides like “Vibration” or “New Addiction.”
“Love Me Again”
Pop-rock track “Love Me Again” does not shy away from the boy-band pop-rock tropes that mark that summery “windows down, stereo up” kind of staple for many a K-Pop album. What is fun about “Love Me Again” is found in its rolling verses that slope into the chorus in a way that doesn’t feel cheesy or like a purely formulaic pop-rock track. The post-chorus is the real high-point of the track, looping the sing-songy verses into the chorus, to great success.
“Wish Upon a Star”
Wistful and elegant, the album comes to a close with “Wish Upon A Star,” produced by member Wonjin. The song is heartfelt and sincere, with enough momentum to move forward rather than crawl to a halt. A sad but wistful introspective on the fleetingness of memory and the passage of time, “Wish Upon a Star” offers a bittersweet closure to a monument of an album for the group and promising to continue onwards and upwards, “beyond the time we’ve both been dreaming of.” This too, is its own craving, for both future and the past, wishing for moments to remain even as the world changes.
Across the album, CRAVITY has set out to show their rebirth, their hunger to grow, laying everything on the line in their audacious desire to crave more. Dare to Crave is a triumph: every song delightful in its own way, inverting their familiar tropes and structures and centering their sound in the pop-rock funk they call their own. Each song is a treat and a surprise to listen to, without any discernable soft spots – a remarkable feat for a 12-song full length album. Craving memory, craving redemption, or craving some sick moves (if you’re the song “Stadium”): the bone-deep hunger that underpins the album makes for the kind of music you simply must tune into. It’s a rebirth, and a refined one at that, melding CRAVITY’s familiar beats with new horizons and new techniques, layering upon itself into something truly great. And as for their new identity? According to the songs, it's one of versatility, one pushing for excellence, and one born in the desire to be bigger than you have ever been. Musically, their risk-taking pays off in such an authentic, but phenomenal release. It's up to the world to take notice.
TITLE TRACK SCORE: 10/10
“Set Net G0?!” MUSIC VIDEO SCORE: 9.2/10
Dare to Crave ALBUM SCORE: 10/10
OVERALL: 9.7/10
Edited by Bryn Claybourne