Pretty privilege is put under the K-pop microscope on IVE’s Looks Can Kill, a six-track mini album that adds a theatrical layer to the girl group’s self-empowerment message. On the album’s superhero-themed title track “Looks Can Kill,” members Gaeul, Yujin, Rei, Wonyoung, Liz, and Leeseo wield their glamorous personas like weapons. The tongue-in-cheek vocal delivery allows listeners past the flat facade of its sing-talk swagger to something campier and more complex. Appearances can be just as deceiving on the dark fantasy track “Mirror Mirror” and the slinking electronic molt of “SNAKESKIN,” but Looks Can Kill turns brighter and more earnest in its second half. On tracks like “CRUMBS” and “Girls Girls Girls,” girl power isn’t an illusion, but rather a viable, retro-coded source of electropop energy. It pushes listeners into the synth waves of eternal pop summer on “Glow Motion,” which was co-written by Swedish singer Zara Larsson.