Song Review:: NINE.i: New Mind- Hurt

• Release date: 2023 August 03

• Album tracklist: One, Turn It Off, Like Crazy, Power up, Hurt, Highschool Love

• Album runtime: 20 minutes

I'm not sure how to classify this one. It'll get lost if I don't classify it like I normally would, but also, it'll get lost if I don't because it will be the only outlier. Although I did say that I might do earlier ones... Oh, well. The performance video came out this month, so I'm counting it as a release even though the song came out last year. I'll figure out classifications for it later when I get another song from last August. 

I have a soft spot for NINE.i. I love Turn It Off, so much in fact that it was a top listen alongside my ridiculous numbers for Face by NU'EST (800+ streams in the space of about three months. In my defense, I was trying to learn the words by reading the Hangeul, because I like making my life difficult). They have some adorably cute songs. And watching Seowon on Boys' Planet with his lovely, fantastic reactions be confused at how he's there is one of the highlights of that show. I would rewatch it just to watch him again. And after whatever legal troubles they were dealing with that are apparently resolved with the company, I'm just happy to see them posting things again. This is, what, two videos in the space of a week? I feel a little like I'm getting spoiled. Hurt originally came from the same album as Turn It Off and Highschool Love, two of my absolute favorite songs by NINE.i.

The beat is quick, and the synth and drums, which make up the majority of the instrumentals, are fairly standard, except for one thing. While the patterns repeat, they stutter briefly into something off-beat occasionally,  which is a good metaphor for how a breaking relationship literally makes you feel like the ground is breaking beneath you, leaving you with no support. Also, there's a triangle used. I can't tell you where because I get so distracted by the synth that I forget to listen to where it is. It's there. It's only used once. I can't decide if I want more, or if it's genius as is.

I don't know where fourth gen ended. Not a clue. I know where first gen ended. I know roughly where second gen ended. I know roughly where third Gen ended. I don't know about the end of fourth and the beginning of fifth, so I can't tell you if NINE.i with their March 2022 (another of my March debuts, and the first group I actually saw in person) are fourth or fifth gen K-Pop. I can tell you I don't think they do the shouting thing I don't like. They may have it in one of the couple of songs I haven't heard, but at that point, the proportions are fine for my taste. One or two songs out of their entire discography? Yeah. I'll live. Hurt is unusual because it doesn't even have rapping. It's purely vocal. I only know one of the members is definitely a rapper, but even he sings for this song. It's in the first verse. It makes me smile. There's one section that almost sounds like rap, but it's done with a melody, so I can't decide if it actually is rap or not. I wouldn't call it that, but then I'm easily weakest on differentiating between different kinds of rap. So I could be wrong. I'm better than I was. But the year of listening to music with rappers doesn't quite compete with the years of vocal training I've had. These voices aren't the most stunning or amazing that I've heard, but I have heard them live, and I know they were live because I heard them go off-key occasionally (I could also tell they were nervous, which was so endearing considering why I was watching them). Though, disclaimer, it wasn't egregiously off-key, and they had mostly stable vocals. Actually, they kind of remind me a little of like, a cross between Seventeen and P1Harmony. 

The thing I notice first and most strongly is the visual glitching, which fully goes in line with that sense of unbalancing I noted for the instrumentals. Those glitches are so cool. And even though this is a performance video, it's not one that is overly complicated. It also does a really good job of highlighting both group and individual performances, even though it seems like they're in a small space. Plus, the choreo that is now being shown off? Intricate. Precise. A little bit sexy. It's not a song for jumping and big movements, and so the choreo doesn't have them. But the details with the hands are impressive. This also could have been filmed in a large space, but the confinement adds to the sense of unbalance. All in all, this is a video that I hope gets a lot of attention. Not just because I really like the group, but because I think it deserves the attention.