The first EP from would-be superstar girl group KATSEYE, SIS (Soft Is Strong) is slight but solid. It clocks in at just over 11 minutes total, and not one of its five tracks hits the three-minute mark, catering to a younger demographic that doesn’t judge a track by its length and acting as a polished pop introduction to members Manon, Sophia, Daniela, Lara, Megan and Yoonchae in the process. While the KATSEYE sextet is based in Los Angeles, the individual members hail from across the United States, Korea, Switzerland, and the Philippines, and include the first Indian, Filipino, Latina and Black artists to be signed under Korean music giant HYBE. They were ultimately selected to be part of HYBE and Geffen’s girl group from more than 120,000 applications. SIS is a peek into why. Even without the K-pop-level choreography that accompanies many of these tracks, these teens and young adults—ages 16 to 22 at the time of their debut—impress in their execution. While pre-release singles “Debut” and “Touch” are airy earworms about pop-star confidence (“I don't need nobody tryna tell me how to run it/Found myself some baddies ’bout to turn it to a hundred”) and a foolish could-have-been lover (“You could've had my love, but you been so out of touch”), respectively, confessional-style anthems “My Way”, “I’m Pretty” and “Tonight I Might” give SIS more texture. The Bang Si-hyuk-penned ballad “My Way” (“Never wanna do what I'm told/Even if I mess it all up and make a million mistakes/At least I can say that I did it my way”) allows some gorgeous glimpses into main vocalists Lara and Sophia's texture. But it’s the moments of full-group vocal harmonies heard across the album that are the most satisfying—a taste of the kind of all-in, culture-shaping global group KATSEYE aspire to be.