NMIXX unleashes their first full-length studio album, and it’s an absolute feast for the senses. One of the year’s most intriguing releases in the K-pop world, the album, titled Blue Valentine, arrives on the heels of four EPs over the years, dating back to the group’s debut in 2022.
NMIXX carves out their own musical style under the banner of MIXX POP. At its core, MIXX POP is an eclectic fusion of genres packed into a single song, blending elements like pop, rock, electronica, R&B, trap, Latin music, and more to craft unpredictable transitions and unconventional structures.
NMIXX elevates this distinctive style into their group identity, turning each track into something occasionally chaotic, yet always intensely dynamic and addictive, while challenging even the conventions of K-pop itself.
It’s innovative and experimental music with a real knack for hooking the listener, but it can also feel a bit exhausting at times. It tests our ability to appreciate diverse genres, as well as just how much music we can process all at once. For my part, I believe the first two times I listened to Blue Valentine, I had to take a few days off to muster the energy to dive back in. It felt that densely musical. I’m not kidding.
One of the album’s standout strengths is the vocal delivery. The vocal arrangements are incredibly dynamic, with parts that emerge out of nowhere, rich harmonies, and distinctive fragments that weave seamlessly alongside the songs’ main melodies.
The opening track, which shares the album’s name, serves as the lead single. The song starts off slow, with a melancholic vibe, but it soon morphs, picking up speed into modern pop laced with some truly captivating vocal moments.
Phoenix, standing in stark contrast to the pop preceding it, is a track with a dark and ominous sound. It exudes a sharp-edged attitude amid lyrics of resilience, telling the story of a phoenix rising anew from the ashes. A true highlight.
One of my favorite tracks on the album is Reality Hurts, an introspective synth-pop cut that’s heavy and dynamic, featuring some of the most compelling vocal melodies in the album.
RICO is the name of a track steeped in massive Latin influences, complete with salsa flourishes and even a reggaeton rhythm, boasting a chorus that goes “me encanta, ay qué rico, rico, rico…”. Undoubtedly one of the album’s most unusual musical experiments.
PODIUM is another Latin-infused experiment blended with EDM that, much to my surprise, strikes me as an excellent track.
The reggaeton rhythm makes a final encore in Crush, a song that’s also built on a strummed, jazzy guitar riff. Though the description might sound wildly unconventional, the track works brilliantly.
Shape of Love, a song that begins in relatively calm waters, soon springs a surprise by evolving into excellent synth-pop, something I can truly appreciate.
The album wraps up with two fun additional tracks, O.O Part 1 (Baila) and O.O Part 2 (Superhero), brand new songs in true MIXX POP fashion, that serve as a narrative and musical sequel to the single that marked the group’s debut in 2022, O.O, delivering a nostalgic wink to close things out.
I have to say that, overall, every song on Blue Valentine comes across as exceptionally strong. Though it’s quite complex music that can sometimes spark a sense of disorientation, the feeling of musical chaos is tightly controlled and makes perfect sense on its own terms.
Blue Valentine is a collection of songs brimming with stellar musical moments, where it’s clear the composers paid meticulous attention to every single beat. It’s one of those albums where I uncover new details with each listen, and I’m thrilled at the prospect of keeping on exploring it.
