The Red Summer is the fifth extended play by South Korean girl group Red Velvet. It was released digitally on July 9, 2017 and physically on July 10, 2017 by SM Entertainment and distributed by Genie Music. The EP includes a total of five tracks, including the title track "Red Flavor".

Tamar Herman of Billboard magazine called the title track "Red Flavor" an electropop song with "dramatic synths and a percussive melody" that is "dynamic in its jam-packed but not overpowering production" and concluded that it is "sure to be one of the summer's K-pop earworms". Jeff Benjamin of Fuse magazine on the other hand, described the song as a "super-simple-to-swallow piece of pop" and wrote that the album consists of five 'feel-good' tracks. "You Better Know" is a warm EDM song. The tropical dance track "Zoo" is a throwback to the group's animal sound-infused debut single "Happiness". "Mojito" was defined as a saccharine, glossy, electropop song and lastly, "Hear the Sea" is a mid-tempo R&B track.

On June 23, 2017, S.M. Entertainment announced that Red Velvet would be releasing an album in July for a summer comeback (a first for the group) and had recently finished filming the music video. At around midnight on June 30, the first set of teaser images were released through the company's official website, the group's official Instagram, and the group's promotional Twitter account, which was created the same month. Later that day, they posted another set of teasers which revealed the album title and the full track list which includes the title track, "Red Flavor". Two of the songs were written by Swedish producer Cazzi Opeia. The album was officially released digitally on July 9 and physically on July 10.

The single "Red Flavor" had an unconventional release and was performed live by the group at an SMTOWN concert in Seoul on July 8 before the song's digital release along with its music video a day later. Hours after its release on July 9, the group had their first music show performance on Inkigayo where they also performed "You Better Know".

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