Girl group HITGS (the “Hip, Innocent, Teenager, Girls, Story”) debuted just over a month ago with the frothy but forgettable Sourpatch, and have made a quick return with new digital single Gross. Think of it as a much more subdued companion to Katseye’s Gnarly, in which a girl group uses a single adjective to comment on the world in the hope of mass virality.
This being a song made for the TikTok generation, it clocks in at a whopping two minutes, twelve seconds. In this case, that’s probably a good thing because I’m not sure I could take much more of this song. Gross marries nursery rhyme melodies to a dull, lumbering beat that sounds like a bunch of cartoon sound effects slowed down. It’s become popular for modern girl groups to adopt what they call a “kitsch” sound, and this is almost always a red flag for me. These songs lean heavily toward novelty and often feel like one idea repeated over and over.
Lyrically, Gross is pretty cute and fits this very young group. Three of the five members just fifteen years old, after all. I assume this song appeals more to listeners their age and younger than it does to me, and if it had been released in isolation I could imagine Gross eliciting a chuckle. However, as part of a larger musical trend, it’s a song I’d never choose to listen to again.
Hooks
6
Production
6
Longevity
7
Bias
6
RATING
6.25