ENHYPEN | BAD DESIRE (WITH OR WITHOUT YOU)
ENHYPEN finally stopped treating vampirism like an unfortunate metaphor and admitted the plan is to bite the love interest. “Bad Desire” wants forever, blood, surrender, and apparently excellent cheekbone lighting. Studio Choom gives the choreography a clean room to confess. Then the camera gets excited and occasionally forgets we came to see feet.
Quick file
- Artist: ENHYPEN
- Song: “Bad Desire (With or Without You)”
- Album: DESIRE : UNLEASH
- Song and official MV release: June 5, 2025
- Studio Choom release: June 6, 2025
- Genre: dark dance-pop
- Writers: Henry Walter, JBACH, Jessica Agombar, “hitman” bang, Slow Rabbit, ARMADILLO, Jang Yeo-jin, and Peridot
- Label: BELIFT LAB
- Theme: loving somebody so completely that turning them into a vampire begins sounding reasonable
My actual first reaction
First thought: This is what happens when “Bite Me” gets older and hires legal counsel.
Sound check: Dark synth bass, a restrained pulse, airy vocals, choral pressure, and a chorus that glides instead of punching.
The moment I leaned in: The group formations folding and opening around the center. The choreography makes desire look organized until one member breaks the shape.
The side-eye: Studio Choom, please stop cutting away when the full formation becomes interesting. I know their faces are beautiful. Their knees also signed a contract.
Current status: Added. The song is not ENHYPEN’s hardest hit, but the choreography understands the assignment better than several people in the control room.
What “Bad Desire” means
The title is not coy. The narrator loves somebody and wants to keep them forever, which in ENHYPEN language means eternal life through vampirism. He knows the desire is selfish. He wants her consent and her surrender. He also cannot imagine existing without changing her.
That conflict gives the song its tension. “With or without you” is not the U2 version of emotional independence. It is closer to: I cannot live correctly either way, so please let me ruin mortality for both of us.
The album title DESIRE : UNLEASH makes the progression clear. Earlier ENHYPEN songs often treated hunger as shame, danger, temptation, or something to resist. “Bad Desire” stops resisting. It names the selfishness and moves closer anyway.
The song chooses elegance over impact
“Bad Desire” does not attack like “Future Perfect” or snap like “Drunk-Dazed.” The production is smoother and colder. Synths create a dark floor while the vocals stay light above it. That contrast makes the group sound less like monsters chasing prey and more like beautiful people explaining why the bite is probably in everybody’s best interest.
The chorus is controlled. Some listeners wanted a larger melodic payoff, especially after the dramatic concept material. I understand. The song keeps promising catastrophe and delivering immaculate posture. But the restraint is also why the performance works. Choreography has space to supply the violence missing from the audio.
Jungwon’s tight tone cuts through the softness. Heeseung adds vocal authority without turning the chorus into a talent show. Jay gives lines rougher edges. Jake and Sunghoon fit the polished seduction. Sunoo can make sweetness feel suspicious. Ni-ki moves like the bass belongs to him.
Studio Choom turns the subtext into body language
The choreography uses reaching, pulling, neck lines, controlled drops, and formations that trap one member before releasing him. Desire is shown as an external force moving through the group. They are synchronized, but the shapes keep suggesting somebody is being drawn out of safety.
There is also a clear difference between stillness and collapse. Members hold a clean line, then melt or break at the beat. That is more effective than filling every second with speed. Hunger needs pauses. You have to see the restraint before the loss of it means anything.
Studio Choom’s lighting and dark red mood fit without recreating the official MV. The room becomes a performance chamber. No plot is required because the choreography carries the transformation.
The camera argument
Fans were divided about the Studio Choom edit. ENHYPEN delivered. The camera sometimes did not. Close-ups arrive during formation details, cuts interrupt transitions, and a performance channel occasionally behaves like a music show trying to locate the prettiest face before the chorus ends.
This complaint matters because Studio Choom built its reputation on letting choreography breathe. Fans watch these videos to see spacing, transitions, and full-body detail that broadcast stages often hide. When the edit chases expressions instead, the product loses its reason to exist.
The later full-focused and individual cameras help. The main upload should not require supplemental evidence to show what the dance did.
The official MV versus the performance room
The official video handles story, dark fantasy, and cinematic desire. The Studio Choom version removes architecture, lore objects, and editing effects. That exposes whether the song still creates a world with only bodies and light.
It does. The members carry the vampire identity in posture. Their movements are elegant enough to attract and sharp enough to threaten. You do not need fangs in every frame. A hand pausing near a throat can do more than digital blood flying across the screen.
The performance also makes the members easier to compare. Ni-ki expands movement without making the formation messy. Jungwon has compact force. Heeseung understands camera timing. Sunoo’s facial control is underrated because people keep discussing his face instead of the choices he makes with it.
Details worth noticing
- The neck imagery: Obvious for vampires, but used as a line of vulnerability rather than a Halloween prop.
- The center traps: Formations often close around one member, turning the group into both desire and consequence.
- The red lighting: It gives heat to a song whose production is otherwise cold and polished.
- The held poses: Stillness lets the next break read as surrender instead of another count.
- The 1:06 moment: Studio Choom’s own description points viewers there. The channel knew exactly which vampire problem it was selling.
The fandom response was not one clean scream
Fans praised the members and the visual concept. They also criticized the camera. Some felt Studio Choom had lost the smoother tracking and full-formation focus that made older performances iconic. Others were satisfied because ENHYPEN remain compelling even when the edit behaves like an excited aunt with a zoom button.
The song itself created a similar split. For some listeners, the sleek chorus and vampire theme were immediate. Others preferred “Outside,” “Flashover,” or different B-sides from the album and wondered why “Bad Desire” carried so much promotion.
That does not make the title track a failure. It means DESIRE : UNLEASH had enough distinct material for people to argue with specifics. Healthy fandom behavior, until somebody begins sending charts in all caps.
Where it works, and where I wanted teeth
The concept, choreography, and vocal styling agree with each other. That coherence is the win. “Bad Desire” knows it is beautiful, selfish, and controlled. The performance translates every part of that into movement.
The song could hit harder. One production rupture, a rougher final chorus, or a bridge that lets the desire become ugly would raise the stakes. The lyrics admit moral danger. The sound keeps the furniture spotless.
The Studio Choom camera also needed discipline. If seven dancers create a formation, show all seven. A close-up is dessert, not the entire meal.
RaeRae verdict
“Bad Desire” is ENHYPEN at their most elegantly doomed. I wanted a little more danger in the audio. The choreography supplies it, especially when watched in a version that stops cutting away.
The vampires have finally accepted the desire. Studio Choom accepted the cheekbones. I am still waiting for the camera to respect the footwork.