They challenged and proved it. This is the story of girl group NMIXX, which has spent the last four years pioneering a new path in K-pop and writing an intriguing account of adventure. Born from the philosophy of mixing that breaks preconceptions and expands the realm of creation, the past four years that this team has walked have been a time proving that their own music genre 'mixpop,' which symbolizes the group, can bloom beautifully with all its ups and downs through trial and error. It was okay to be bolder and go further. The 'Fe3O4' series was like that. Based on solid capabilities to accomplish anything, they grasped melodies they had dreamed of and sounds never heard before as their own. 'Blue Valentine' was a splendid celebration of this. Critical acclaim and public cheers guided the rapid advance of the NMIXX ship like wind in sails.
NMIXX's fifth mini album 'Heavy Serenade' depicts a landscape from their own destination planet 'Mixutopia,' which they have reached. A group that had emphatically sung emotions of challenge and breakthrough, resurrection and overcoming, is now singing the daily lives of those who have arrived for the first time. At the singular point they had so wanted to face, the group encourages and comforts itself while preparing for the next voyage. The will to now convey to all the personal creative perspective of the 'Fe3O4' series, which had embraced anxiety while rushing forward, declaring itself different, and going to the farthest possible end, as a more peaceful and grander message stands out.
'Heavy Serenade' feels more like a space station than a planet. In this incomplete paradise that orbits stably and serves as an interim stopping point, the group looks back on the adventure that has progressed smoothly before seeking new coordinates, gains certainty, and refines language that can resonate with unknown entities. It conducts experiments with various sounds that were deemed impossible due to real-world constraints in unreached spaces, and examines whether it can contain and standardize the hearts of all those who became the driving force of the long voyage in a unique vessel. Then what emotion has NMIXX chosen through this album? It is love. They believe that the reason they could boldly challenge what they love, and the reason they never lost faith even when others said it was wrong, all lies in love. With the power of love, NMIXX seeks to rush toward their next destination.
A clear blueprint is NMIXX's triumphal march 'Heavy Serenade.' Grounded in piano sounds that quietly pierce silence, raw synth samples that roughly undulate and heavy drum performance help self-affirmation that was recited gently resound loudly to the whole world. It is an expansion in more dramatic form of the emotion of 'Blue Valentine,' which burned with blue light because it was hottest. Interestingly, this form is completed not through smooth bonding but by embracing the collision itself. What completes the warm lyrics written by singer-songwriter Han Ro Ro is the power of vocals and production. The key lies in the song composition that varies richly over time and the control and expression of NMIXX members that grandly close the finale. This NMIXX style, NMIXX's way of expression, is the core that raises the scale of the mundane glimpses, which resemble the music video of single 'Roller Coaster' where magic and everyday life crossed, to a day on an unfamiliar planet. Even the tranquil seascape carries the tension as if enormous waves from the movie 'Interstellar' were about to strike. It is tension only NMIXX can deliver.
An intentional arrangement of tension. From 'Crescendo,' which will remain as one of the most experimental songs in NMIXX's career, there is an amusing contradiction. This song, which only recalls familiar vocal samples evoking 'Ocean,' is a series of dynamic variations where it's hard to predict the next structure. Forceful vocals guiding toward bass drops and fragments of acapella confirm that values of radical deconstructivism will continue. Without only the slogan 'NMIXX changeup,' the pleasure of the most radically joined and mixed song remains thanks to vocal capabilities that can tread carefully. The broad composition that runs through NMIXX's career from debut single 'O.O' to 'Tic Tic' released with Brazilian artist Pablo Vittar stands out in 'Superior,' while 'LOUD' with Lily's sole songwriting and the shimmering drum and bass and grime composition along with vocal interplay reminiscent of Imogen Heap maintains the brand value of mixpop. 'IDESERVEIT,' an aggressive hip-hop track continuing 'Star, Star, Star,' or 'Different Girl,' which unfolds the sentiment of 'Know About Me' in a more subdued R&B, are about as stable as it gets. For fans who understand star-studded as basic, they will ironically feel tranquility from this album's unpredictable songs.
The 'Heavy Serenade' EP doesn't just mix genres. The thematic consciousness of pop singer-songwriters realized in K-pop is an interesting fusion element of the album. The main narrative of K-pop girl groups that imprint how unique and different from others they are while exhibiting irreplaceable presence clearly differs from NMIXX's way of thinking. The utterances of 'IDESERVEIT,' which encourages and dedicates to the self that has come this far, 'Heavy Serenade,' which conveys the confession of one not fearful of love, and 'LOUD,' which sings love with the loudest voice and makes one believe in oneself, succeed in securing agency from a first-person perspective. This is why NMIXX's vocals do not remain merely functional despite K-pop production that builds layers of sound brilliantly, and is the secret to why the voices and thoughts of Sullyoon, Lily, BAE, Haewon, Kyujin, and Jiwoo who sing the songs become of interest. This sincerity resembles the grammar of pop female singer-songwriters like Taylor Swift, whom Lily admires, and those who followed—Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams. Excluding typical pop star themes of romance, marriage, and breakup, they are conducting self-exploration within the K-pop system.
Compared to the organic album composition of 'Fe3O4: FORWARD' and the positive department-store style composition of the 'Blue Valentine' album, the weakness that 'Heavy Serenade' has lies in this collision. Not every ambition needs to reach its destination at the same speed. It is a decision that can be made since they have already succeeded in leaving a positive impression that NMIXX's music is such a group's music even with difficult music. Considering that point, the six tracks of 'Heavy Serenade' shine each as separate spaces far apart in different planetary systems. The reason lies in the power of melody. While maintaining broad composition and wishing to sing the theme of peaceful and serene love's power, the strength of melody does not match beats, sound samples, or structural changes. As the melodies that empowered 'Blue Valentine' and 'Papillon' fade, moments arrive while listening to the album where only technical methods of expressing overwhelming emotion remain. To create a song that embraces all, densely accumulated melody is needed. The same goes for the album tracks. Expectations for NMIXX as a group have grown too large to remain merely an impression of being unique.
In the end, a station is a temporary structure. After docking spaceships and conducting various projects, there comes a moment when one must return to Earth to prove those results or make the decision to venture into the open sea. The reason NMIXX explains the Mixutopia they have reached in this work as 'like a completely empty lot' and adds a narrative of wanting to sing the excitement and anticipation in a world where anything is possible lies here. 'Heavy Serenade' is an intersection point between K-pop's horizontal axis where one cannot linger and the vertical axis of the members' identities seeking to take firm root. NMIXX, preparing for departure toward vast oceans with solidifying self-affirmation. Can this current pause one day be remembered as coordinates for a leap?
Kim Do-heon (Popular Music Critic) / zener1218@gmail.com
<Photo source=JYP Entertainment>
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