“Allergy” is the pre-release music for (G)I-DLE‘s upcoming return, and generally it checks off all the boxes in terms of being a pop-rock romp that throws us back to the early-00s, keeping a straightforward momentum and going for anthemic melodies in the chorus. For those reasons alone, I think it’s a high quality, energy-lifting music and a terrific table-setter for what’s to come back.
Of course, it’s nearly not possible to hearken to this and never examine it to 2NE1‘s “Ugly“, both in terms of sound (“Ugly” was synthier) and lyrical content (the same, “Allergy” is just modernized). The key to both is the chorus, which is unfortunately where “Allergy” has an unfavorable comp, because “Ugly” really goes for it and has a better hook. For whatever reason, “Allergy” doesn’t fairly go for it like that.
Honestly although, I used to be reasonably stunned by how fleshed-out the idea was for a pre-release, as the mix of theme and music video are seemingly nearly as good as any comeback, seemingly set at a 00s teen film and offering visually placing cues at each nook to assist reinforce their messaging and serving to to in the end improve the “Allergy” expertise.
