Psycho (Red Velvet song)

"Psycho" received positive reviews from music critics for its "smooth and sultry" delivery and its "haunting", "catchy yet structured" production.

It peaked at number two in Malaysia and for three consecutive weeks on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, giving Red Velvet their 12th domestic top-10 entry.

[1] Two days later, the first batch of teaser photographs were posted on the group's official social media accounts, including "Psycho" as the lead single for this release.

[2] "Psycho" was written by American record producer Andrew "Druski" Scott, Korean-American Singer-songwriter EJAE, and their frequent Swedish collaborator Cazzi Opeia during a 2017 songwriting camp in Seoul, South Korea.

Opeia recorded a demo version in English that was leaked on the Internet weeks before the song's release; songwriter Kenzie rewrote the lyrics in Korean with additional arrangement from producer Druski and Yoo Young-jin, the latter of whom co-produced the group's previous single "Bad Boy" in 2018.

[5] Musically, "Psycho" has been described as an up-tempo urban song; Tamar Herman of Billboard described it as an R&B-pop track with future bass, a "grandiose operatic" instrumental intro with "dramatic" pizzicato strings, "classical" chords and trap beats, squelching synthesizers, which made it the group's seventh single to fall under the "Velvet" concept.

The song's lyrics tell the story of a relationship that is "full of ups and downs" in which a couple "fights so much that they appear crazy in the eyes of others but are nonetheless meant for each other" and eventually assure the listener "we're gonna be alright".

[21] "Psycho" was the ninth-best performing single of 2020 on Gaon's Year-end Digital Chart, and the only one by an idol group to appear in the top ten.

[24][25] The song also became Red Velvet's second entry on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart after "Zimzalabim", entering at number 10 for the week of December 30, 2019.

[35] In an interview with the song's producer in February 2020, writer Yim Hyun-su of The Korea Herald described "Psycho" as a "catchy earworm" and said Red Velvet "shows no signs of stopping anytime soon".

[36] L'Officiel Malaysia cited "Psycho" as one of 14 definitive K-pop songs of 2019 and called it a "go-to track to sing in the shower".

[37] Online magazine Tonplein described "Psycho" as "the track that has created the most impressive spot among K-pop works released over the past year" and put it at number one on their list.

[39] Despite Red Velvet not attending nor performing on any television music show, "Psycho" won nine music-show trophies by January 2020,[43] became the group's second most-awarded title track in a tie with their 2017 single "Rookie", and was their first song to achieve triple-crown status on all three national television channels, namely Music Bank, Show!