On October 13, IVE released their latest album, I’ve Mine, with the three title tracks “Either Way”, “Off the Record”, and “Baddie”. Along with the album release, they also came out with the music video for “Baddie”, which was overall received well in terms of their pretty visuals and the nice aesthetics of the video.

They also took to the stage on Music Bank to perform their new songs, going for a more girl crush-esque vibe rather than their usual royal and elegant theme.

It’s definitely the most dramatic change they’ve made to their concept during their career so far, and making such a change is always somewhat of a risk no matter how successful a K-Pop artist is. In fact, sometimes a group can lose popularity if they stray from what made them successful in the first place.

IVE | @IVEstarship/Twitter

That isn’t necessarily going to be the case for IVE, but there are a lot of opinions about their comeback with “Baddie” in particular, and not all of them are positive. While most are commending the members’ gorgeous visuals and vocal prowess, not everyone thinks that they’re able to pull off a more powerful and hard-hitting song like their latest title track.

| @IVEstarship/Twitter

Others are criticizing having as much rap in the song as there is, preferring to listen to IVE’s soothing and pretty singing voices. While the members are undoubtedly talented performers, some netizens just think that “Baddie” isn’t the best song to play into their strengths.

| Starship Entertainment

On one forum post about IVE’s latest comeback, the comments are filled with pretty heavy criticism towards “Baddie” and how it just wasn’t the right choice for the girl group.

Another forum post about the comeback also has some criticism in the comments, though it’s overall a little less harsh and there are some people coming in support of “Baddie” too.

What’s your stance on this new direction that IVE is going in?

 “They are not girl crush material except for Yujin.”