Song Review:: NINE.i: New Mind- Power Up

• Release date: 2023 August 03

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

• Album runtime: 20 minutes

 Am I hoping that this renewed activity by NINE.i is an indication that we're getting an album by the end of the year, and that this is to increase their internet footprint and gain some small amount of traction again now that they're back off their legal induced hiatus? Absolutely. Things have been resolved apparently. NINE.i is active again. Life is good.

Just because I can and because this is my little review blog and I make the rules, at the bottom of this, I'm also going to add their original comeback stage on The Show, because you know a song is fire when a shoe comes off during the performance. And also, Vahn couldn't perform the choreography before, but he can now! 

I've said it more than once, but I really like the fact that this has a member writing and producing the songs. Vahn. Vahn is awesome.

You know, I just really, really love how bright their songs are. Even their slower songs have a cheer to them that just makes me happy. Hurt is one of the few exceptions, but you can listen to it yourself, or go find the review I did for it. But Power Up? First of all, I've been incredibly vocal about the fact that I love snapping in songs. This has it. In one of the brief slowdowns during the unabashed, energetic assault on the senses, snapping can be heard. The use of silence in this song should actually be studied because it is masterful. The start doesn't indicate the amount of energy that is about to pound into you, and it takes a gentle minute to build, including a brief moment of silence at the end of the verses, and then absolutely explode into the chorus that carries through the post-chorus. Silence gets dropped in at points so the members' voices get to carry the energy and ask you if you're ready to jump and shout with them. 

This song reminds me of pop from the early 10s. One Direction, Big Time Rush, Justin Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Taylor Swift. Teen pop. Dance pop. The members' energy is infectious even when you aren't actually watching them perform it. That bridge is fantastic and delightful, breaking up the rhythm of the song to hype the crowd up. The chorus is so prominent that normally, I'd be like "Ugh, the repetition," but I don't. Why? The variation in the instrumentals and the bridge to interrupt the parade of the choruses toward the ending. It's fun. It's energetic. It's just a happy song, and it also matches the title track in energy. This song doesn't show off their vocals too well, but it isn't a song that's meant to do that. Instead, what we get is the entire group throwing themselves into the very serious job of hype in a song that makes me hate life just a little bit less as I'm heading to work on a Friday morning and allows me to destress heading home from work Friday afternoon.

Vahn actually gets to open up the song for the special video. And the song is Seowon's song. He takes to it like feathers on a duck. The entire group is so smiley through the whole song, except Jiho, but in his defense, he's a serious maknae. Even he has his moments where he cracks a smile, which is the equivalent of someone else falling to the ground from laughing so hard. But seriously, Seowon owns the song. I'm partial to him anyway, but he's adorable. I don't know if he is the happy virus of the group or not, but he is for this song. Also, that message at the end.

And, as promised, their The Show performance that made Eden lose the shoe. Vahn gets the thumbnail.