I Feel

On April 18, 2023, Cube Entertainment announced the group's comeback on May 15 by releasing a video teaser with style resembling that of a trailer of a series. The video revealed the titles of the new songs as well as the credits.[2] The announcement was also accompanied by a concept poster featuring a drawing of a Trump's queen card, with the letter 'G', representing the G in the group's name, engraved in the upper left corner of the poster instead of 'Q', in which means queen. In addition, phrases such as 'Top 10' at the top right and '(G)I-dle Original Series' at the bottom.[3]

On April 24, the group released the tracklist and a teaser video, revealing "Queencard" as the lead single.[4] The following day, the group released five "casting board" teaser images.[5] From April 26 to May 4, the group released a series of teasers and photos that narratives a story, which took the form of "High Teen", Mean Girls, and Y2K‐inspired visuals throughout the releases.

Beginning on April 26, the group released a "map character", an introduction to each character that was played by the members.[6][7] Later that day, they released an "introduction video" inspired by the 2004 movie Mean Girls was released.[8] On the following day April 27, the group released a "Spoiler Alert: Yuqi" version that showcased snippets of the fourth track, "All Night.[9] On April 28, the group released Shuhua's version, which showcased snippets of the sixth track, "Peter Pan". The released video displays a storyline that is connected to the previous release.[10]

On 29th, the group released five Queen concept images.[11] On May 1, the "Spoiler Alert: Minnie" version was released, and it showcased snippets of the third track, "Lucid". The video shows references to the group previous release "Tomboy".[12] On May 2, Miyeon version was released with snippets of the fifth track, "Paradise".[13] On May 3, the group released five Butterfly concept images.[14] On May 4, Soyeon version was released with snippets of the second track, "Allergy".[15] On May 5, five of the Cat concept images was released.[16]

On May 9, 2023, Cube uploaded five individual teaser photos for each member of the group on their social media accounts, confirming the release of track two "Allergy", on May 10.[17] On May 11, an "interview video" teaser was released. The video took the form of behind-the-scenes commentary video with a snippets of the group being interviewed about the album.[18]

'I Feel' is an album containing (G)I-dle's declaration that they will love themselves as they are, no matter how they feel and that they want to boost the listeners self-esteem.[19]

Soyeon noted in the album press release that she was inspired by the 2018 American movie I Feel Pretty when composing the lead single "Queencard", she stated that she wanted to make the album and its lead single sound like a comedy movie "that describes the daily lives of those in their 20s and their concerns".[20] Thus the group took on "a new challenge" to dramatize the album through tracks "that develop around one single story in which each member has their own character", in which Soyeon plays the character of an "aspiring queen bee",[20] while Miyeon is a social media influencer, Minnie is a lonely gym trainer, and Yuqi and Shuhua are popular besties.[8] The narrative begins with the music video of the pre-release video "Allergy", and the story continues in the music video of the lead single "Queencard", where Soyeon realizes that "true beauty comes from self-confidence after finding out that even the queen bees have their own insecurities and compare themselves with others."[20] Visually, Soyeon draws inspiration from "high-teen" and Y2K throughout the music videos, artwork, and album teasers.[21][22]

The album is primarily a pop record and consists of six tracks that incorporate a variety of genres, such as pop rock, electro pop, pop ballad, and dream pop, with its songs incorporating newtro, rock, R&B, and minimalistic production. All tracks were produced by Soyeon, while Minnie and Yuqi served as co-composer and lyricist for "Lucid," "Paradise," "All Night," and "Peter Pan" respectively. In addition to the members, a variety of songwriter-producers also participated, including longtime collaborators such as Pop Time, BreadBeat, and Siixk Jun, with whom the group has worked on previous songs.[23][24]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
NME	[29]
All Music	[24]

NME's Rhian Daly, in his review, gives the album four stars out of five and compliments its "frothy fun" and less serious approach to its topics, writing, "as fun as the song is [Queencard], it's a relief that the rest of I Feel doesn’t reach quite as ridiculous levels. Its remaining five tracks, though, refuse to get totally serious, instead splitting between more light-hearted moments and deeper topics." He furthermore wrote, "I feel might not be (G)I-dle’s strongest release so far, but it presents a group unafraid to make bold moves as they grow creatively. Their habit of continuing to challenge and experiment is what makes their comebacks so exciting – long may it continue."[29]

All Music's Neil Z. Yeung complemented the album's "genre-blurring pop" songs that incorporate a variety of other genres writing, "I Feel, (G)I-dle amps up the fun and energy with six genre-blurring pop anthems that incorporate dance beats, rock riffs, and R&B slickness."[24]

Ilgan Sports's Journalist Kwon Hye-mi complemented the group's change in terms of visual writing, "unlike 'Nude', which was the queen of extremes, the concept photo of 'I Feel' contained a much more free and natural look of (G)I-dle." She then pressed to praise the group's members for participating in the production process, writing: "What should be noted is that in this album [I Feel], the members' participation in all the b-side songs, including 'Queencard,' is high, so you can feel (G)I-dle's matured music. In the case of 'I Love', Soyeon was created in 'Nude' for writing, composing, and arranging the song, and Minnie and Yuqi engraved their names on the b-side song for composing and writing lyrics. On the other hand, in 'I Feel', all the members worked on the songs together as a team."[32] On a more negative note, South Korean music critic Mimyo criticized in his review for Yes24 the lead single "Queencard," while he complimented the rest of the album's tracks.[33]

In South Korea the EP surpassed one million copies in pre-orders on May 14,[34] due to this, Cube Entertainment is predicted to exceed their total consolidated sales for the first half of 2023.[35] On its first week, the album debuted at number one on the Circle Chart with over one million copies, achieving one of the highest Initial Chodong sales on said chart.[36] In United States, the album debuted at number one on World Albums Charts, at number seven on Top Album Sales and at number 41 on the Billboard 200 with 18,000 equivalent album units, including 16,000 in album sales.[37]

The physical album was released in three versions with three concepts: Queen, Butterfly, and Cat. In the Queen version, (G)I-dle showed "haughty eyes and elegant expressions", with the members staring at the camera.[38] In the said version, the five members are shown dressed in pink outfits and shining tiaras.[11] In the Butterfly version, the group embraced a "dreamy atmosphere", in which each member wore a butterfly wings over a white dress.[39] In the Cat version, (G)I-dle exuded a chic expression and a mysterious atmosphere, with the group showing off their "strong chemistry" by lying on the bed while "enjoying" their leisure time.[40] The EP comes with a CD, lyric paper, booklet, photocard, polaroid, a mini poster, and a tattoo sticker, ID card, and poster which are only available for pre-order.[41] The Target exclusive versions will contain an additional mini photobook and photocard.[42] The album also came in jewel cases as well, and there will be five versions covering all five members of the group.

To communicate the release of the album, the group released two episodes of their series "We Spotlight", exclusively on Melon, released through 'Melon Spotlight' on 15 and 16 May, respectively. The series is for discussing and introducing the album and the story behind each song.[43] On the same day the group also held a live event at Chosun Palace Gangnam, Gangnam-gu called "production presentation" to introduce the album and its songs, including "Queencard".[44]

Credits adopted from album liner notes.[45]

• I Feel at Discogs (list of releases)
• I Feel at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
• I Feel playlist on YouTube