Rating: 10/10

As many albums and EP’s are released, some skyrocket the charts while others do quite the opposite. Itzy’s tenth album called Cheshire was released on November 11th, 2022, and clearly stood out from the other two albums Itzy released the same year. Cheshire follows the band’s usual style of music, including very energetic and intense pop musical styles. Before Cheshire was released, Itzy’s two previous albums were not as successful in ranked music charts. Those albums used a style of K music that differed from their previous debut albums in 2019. The Cheshire album represented Itzy’s return to their more popular and perfected music style. 

“Cheshire”

The title track of Cheshire is also called “Cheshire.” This song includes each member’s unique vocals while challenging Itzy with new sounds from their past songs. Yeji, Itzy’s main vocalist, sang the first part of the chorus: “Hey, why so serious? 보이는 것 그대로 날 믿어봐 (hey).” This line goes up to A minor, D minor, E minor, which was a huge accomplishment for Itzy, who has a history of underestimating their members’ vocal strength. Another member, Chaeryeong, also brought her strong vocals into this song, singing more lines than she has had in past title tracks and shining throughout the song with her charisma. The rest of the members—Ryujin, Yuna and Lia—maintained their vocal image and improved their rhythm, especially Ryujin, who demonstrated her fluidity between English and Korean rap in her rap segment. 

“Snowy”

The second track of this album is called “Snowy.” Compared to their title track, this incorporates a slower rhythm of music. This significantly differentiates from the usual “b-sides” that Itzy has created and their intense, fast-paced songs. “Snowy” successfully blends a slow, rhythmic beginning segment with a faster paced chorus. Itzy also takes advantage of their vocal ability as the member’s sing parts of songs that best fit their vocal range.

“Freaky”

The track “Freaky” maintains a constant pace throughout the song while incorporating relatively few English words compared to the saturation of Korean words. This highlights their ability to sing very comfortably as the song itself is soft and lighthearted. Towards the end of “Freaky,” Yeji and Lia hold the high note. They hold the positions of the main and lead vocalist, respectively. Towards the end of the long, the last two lines are “I’m in my zone. Just leave in my zone.” This song  seems to be targeted towards everyone that doubted Itzy as a group, leaving this song with a light hearted pace but a deeper message.

“Boys Like You”

This song was released as a single before the rest of the album, further set apart from their typical music since it was completely in English. Musicians typically choose their strongest song to release as a single, and as it was placed into the Cheshire album, this song must have done fairly well with its distinctive sounds and vocals. 

To conclude this review, this album in general was a very strong comeback from Itzy.  They improved all their skills as musicians while expanding their horizons with new styles. This album drew a more positive response from their audience than past albums, especially with the music video for Cheshire already having forty-five million views eight days after being released. Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Yuna and Chaeryeong all shined throughout this album. I enjoyed all of the tracks and can’t wait for them to release more albums like this one in the future.