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Strange Muse Commentary

Birthday Wish

3.5⭐/5

A very endearing track that's fitting as a "happy ending" to what I'll call the Mixxtopia trilogy, but doesn't have much more legs than that in terms of the NMIXX narrative. It doesn't suit my taste in sentimentality (i.e. yearning, pain, and anxiety ❤️) as much as Blue Valentine and Heavy Serenade either, and I also had some more formal issues with the structure. It's still charming, it's still a joy to hear, and it does make a fan think "I love NMIXX"!

To not repeat myself too much I'll link this thread where I say more.

Kerosene

4.5⭐/5

I love whoever produced the instrumental on this. It's so freaky and exhilarating! I love dark, wonky, almost industrial textures like these. There's too many textural treasures hidden in this thing to point them all out, but some of my favourites: the bass that swells in and out after everything becomes tense and shrill at 1:43, the little sci-fi "pa-pows" throughout, the piercing rising synth in the final chorus.

The Kerosene-sene-sene chant chorus isn't my favourite (a running theme on this EP, as we'll see) but I do actually like the "[beat] crazy [beat] crazy [beat] crazy [beat] flash" part, the off-beat vocal hits really drive the manic energy.

The pre-chorus is lovely, though. Sullyoon in particular is just on fire on this EP when it comes to these relatively low, serene melodies. Sort of typical of modern K-pop trends, all the melody and vocal performance in this EP is annoyingly stuck in the pre-choruses and verses, but I mind this the least here.

The novelty of this one might wear off for some listeners, but I suspect I'll be coming back to it a lot for the depth and textures. I love stuff like this and really feel like no one in this industry is doing it like NMIXX!

RudE TaLK

4⭐/5

Okay mixxpop! I honestly might prefer the cute and playful half of this song to the other half, even though the latter has more of that industrial sound I like, and the instrumental on the chorus indeed might be the grittiest on the EP. I just don't love that initial talk-rap.

I don't think it's a performance issue, the girls are putting in a lot of attitude and texture. I just don't like the flow, especially with that instrumental, it feels disjointed and not in a particularly interesting way. The chopped up "ru-ru-rude talk" that appears later is a stronger element.

Still, the switchup hits like a truck the first time and the anticipation of it hitting again lingers through the following verse. The melodic singing parts in the verses are delightful and performed to fit the spritely little guitar to a T. Sullyoon and Kyujin especially continue to amaze with their progress!

I wish it continued to a third chorus, maybe with an extra little surprise in it, but even as it is, it's characteristically "NMIXX" and persuasively so.

Sing to the Moon

3⭐/5

Sing to the Moon is a subtle song. It doesn't use a lot of layers, it doesn't use a lot of dynamics, it's got the simplest instrumentation you could have for a piano ballad. By no means do I think this is necessarily a recipe for a bad or even a boring song. In this regard, it reminds me of the Kdrama OST Haewon sang on Lee Mujin Service.

I've mentioned before that my eyes glaze over at a Kpop piano ballad not because of the format but because they're so ubiquitous and usually so cut-and-paste. So, does Sing to the Moon actually contain something special in the subtleties?

I don't have a fantastic ear for chromatics, so I honestly don't know on that front. What I do like: "sing to the moon" is functioning as a hook here, and I think it pretty much works. The lyrics are really touching. Even better: the piano, like the rest of the elements of the song, is not doing anything especially crazy, but it's also not just playing chords. It's got a melody and rhythm that are a little playful and a little thoughtful. I like that it's genuinely an instrument of roughly equal importance to Lily and Haewon's voices and not just a background element.

What I don't like: I feel like it barely used the 4:00 length. The bridge we got was nice, and the subtle dynamics of final chorus is welcome. I would've liked to see some modulation and maybe some more unique sections, which could certainly still preserve the song's identity as an unpretentious refinement of the basics, as opposed to just giving it the typical explosive structure and calling it a day.

Still, I don't dislike the song overall. It's not among the more boring Kpop piano ballads I've heard. There are even many "explosive" ballads that feel more rote than this. It just didn't particularly wow me despite Lily and Haewon's elevating talents. A pleasant listen, especially when appreciated as its own thing - within the context of the album I didn't really need such a drastic breather (but I have a high tolerance for busy music).

Hot 'n Unbothered

3.5⭐/5

The first second hits you with by far its strongest quality: the sound design on that synth bass. Oh my god, it's so deep and hollow and expansive. It's absolutely cavernous. It takes a quick breath before the very first hit as well, which emphasizes it.

Surprisingly, considering the 2:19 run time, it might suffer from its length less than Whip. It still does suffer for it, but it manages to develop its soundscape a couple times in that duration, which is really welcome to keep a "vibey" song like this interesting.

I don't really have much negative to say about this one, except that I also don't have many more exceptional things to say about it. It's also just never really been my genre, which is not interesting to say, but there you go.

Perhaps I'd like Sullyoon and Bae's voices to be more full and prominent in the mix. They suit this sound so well but they're pretty buried in there, especially the ad libs.

They both have a few great vocal moments in here anyway. I especially like the final line of the pre-chorus!

WHIP

4⭐/5

I mean. How can you argue with this thing? It's short, it's simple, but it's just too much fun. Jiwoo and Kyujin's attitudes shine through and their rap performances are probably their best. The beat is addictive. The whip sound effect is hilarious and iconic. The glide of the chromatic scale(?) in the instrumental at the end of each section of the chorus keeps the anticipation high for the whole ride. It's somehow just campy enough that even the battle cry isn't weird, from both Jiwoo and Kyujin. It's NMIXX's new standard for a straight-up hip hop track.

The biggest thing that keeps this from being pop-rap perfection is that outro, which is just unsatisfying! It just kind of ends, maybe in the most unceremonious fashion of any track here, which is a bummer for a song so short, especially as the last track on the album.

Strange Muse EP overall

4⭐/5

In terms of sonic themes on this EP, one in particular stands out to me: while the Heavy Serenade EP was (controversially, although it didn't bother me too much and sometimes even felt like a strength) produced and mixed with a foggy, mystical coolness, Strange Muse is consistently punchy, thick, and saw-toothed. I'm a big fan of this, and as such I'm finding it to maybe be NMIXX's most "ear candy" album/EP.

What holds it back is, zooming out, structurally and compositionally, it doesn't keep up with NMIXX's best. Every song that isn't Sing to the Moon (or perhaps Kerosene) suffers for ending too soon, every song that isn't Sing to the Moon has a non-melodic repetitive chant element to the chorus.

I actually don't find Strange Muse to be underbaked, undercooked, underproduced, or whatever. If anything, I could imagine a good faith criticism that says this EP's most salient offerings are overproduced. As in, having more production bells and whistles than its structural ideas can actually keep up with.

NMIXX were insanely busy this year, but I don't really suppose that had much impact on what SQU4D's A&R can source from producers and put together into something cohesive. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it pretty much comes down to conscious and intentional decisions.

I'd emphasize moderating against narrativizing this - as in, I don't really know what that "means" specifically. I still think it's true what some have been saying: that they could put together something cooler music-wise more reliably with more time on their hands than the seemingly industry-enforced 6 month schedule. There's just always a battle between creative and capital going on inside every production company and every entertainment company and I don't know the interpersonal details of any of it.

Anyway, I said I didn't find this EP disappointing, and I still feel that way. Part of that is probably going in with tempered expectations, but I really enjoyed this EP from the first listen, and I ended up loving at least 3 tracks a lot. It pretty much exactly meets the bar of quality I expect from NMIXX without exceeding it.

Full NMIXX discography standings

  1. Fe3O4: Forward 4.5⭐/5
  1. Blue Valentine 4.5⭐/5
  1. Heavy Serenade 4.5⭐/5
  1. Fe3O4: Break 4⭐/5
  1. Strange Muse 4⭐/5
  1. A Midsummer NMIXX's Dream 4⭐/5
  1. Fe3O4: Stick Out 3.5⭐/5
  1. AD MARE 3.5⭐/5
  1. ENTWURF 3.5⭐/5
  1. expérgo 3⭐/5