K-pop juggernaut Stray Kids finish off their new mini album with a remake of the title tune for larger crowds, “This & That (Festival Version),” co-written by Tele.
This concludes an eight-track project that’s already full of range. “THIS & THAT” is the group’s 10th mini album, dropping ahead of their STRAYCITY tour across Latin America in September. Tele also co-wrote and co-arranged the original title track with 3RACHA, The Monsters & Strangerz, and Isaiah Tejada, so putting that same creative input into this festival flip keeps it connected, rather than slapped on.
Production adds to the rhythmic drive, but preserves the original’s laid-back confidence. The entire project was mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Manny Marroquin at Larrabee Studios, and that polish is here, too. Nothing about the remake loses what made the original groove work, it only pushes everything louder for a live situation.
Bang Chan, Changbin and Han are still the anchors of the group’s casual delivery, trading the same humorous lines about doing it all again over. Tele’s touch on arrangement changes the way the track breathes here, intended for crowd singalongs more than headphone listening. That change of intention is just what a festival version needs.
This & That (Festival Version) works because it recognizes the setting it is built for, instantaneous, communal, made to move a stadium.
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