Listening to the song before reading anything about it, I came away taken by how much of a mood-setter this was, simultaneously holding this regretful, sentimental softness to it but also being applicable to a uplifting, foot-tapping nighttime ride. That allows the bittersweet atmosphere to be the constant. Yet it always feels like more than the sum of its parts due to the seamless transitions that break monotony but never the momentum of the song.

The lack of immediate absolute peak is solved by the ending flurries, the bridge doesn’t kill the vibe and only provides a brief reset, and the chorus is hookier than you remember at first with “ireohge L-O-V-E neoreul mot ijeo” standing out.

There’s no real weak spot to “After We Ride”, with the verses being excellent in their own right, always pushing the song forward. The instrumental foundation is fantastic with arrays of retro synths paired with a chugging guitar and percussion hits to create a foundation that widely appeals to me at the outset. Honestly, this was a bit of a surprise, less subdued than “We Ride” it actually fits being a pop single better.

Brave girls we ride