Song Review:: NEXZ: NALLINA- NALLINA

• Release date: 2024 November 18

• Album tracklist: HARD, NALLINA, Net Zeneration, Eye to Eye, Keep on Moving (Korean Ver.)

• Album runtime: 14 minutes

 Hello, group that's supposed to be the next Stray Kids, which is a ridiculous moniker to slap a rookie group with before they'd even debuted, especially when they aren't even in the same division at JYPE. I'm still so annoyed that they were called that. When this post comes out, they'll have hit their six month mark, barely, so congrats to them for that!! Also, congrats to me for this being my 200th post!! 🎉 It's a serendipitous alignment of the stars, and I am pleased by this. I don't think I've heard any of their songs yet, either from their Korean debut or their Japanese debut a couple of months ago, so I'm interested and a little excited to be seeing what they're doing.

Why are the songs so short on this album? That's, what, two and a half minutes on average? A little over that?

I really want to like this song. But the problem is that I put it on to do this, and forgot I was listening to music. And I've done that twice. Once, I can excuse as obviously either my ears or my brain were not ready to be listening to it. It happens. I can adjust to it. But usually the second time, I can focus better because I set myself into a position where I'm feeling more prepared to do so. There's something about this song that completely turns to background noise in my head, but it obviously can't be grating background noise or I would be aware that it's there and want to get rid of it. When I'm aware of it, it's not bad. So I'm going to try the other trick I use in this situation and, while eating, run through the whole album, short though it is, to try to prime my ears for the song I want.

Which worked a little. There's an industrial sound to it that I normally really like, but there's also an unfortunate sense of gritty posturing that makes me look at that six month mark and raise my eyebrows. The sound and the vibes continue through most of the rest of the album, so at least they're being  consistent in the concept and presentation. The instrumentals feel a little performatively one-dimensional, like they're trying to be quirky without actually being unapologetically quirky. But I also think it should be said that I still don't think this is a bad song, or at least that it couldn't be enjoyable in the same way a bad movie can't be enjoyable. Not every song should be a five-course dinner prepared by an esteemed chef. Sometimes a song should be a bag of candy that you really probably shouldn't eat in one sitting but you do anyway. Still yummy. NALLINA is formulaic in a way that likely is a comfort food for some people, and I respect that.

I also respect, even if it's not my favorite thing, what's going on with the vocals. I've gotten enough of a break from this sound in recent months that it doesn't bother me quite as much as it did at the start of the year. The saturation I've been undergoing has helped with that little issue I had as I think we're moving away from that style of sound being popular anyway, courtesy of a pair of rookie HYBE boy groups, which leaves room for the occasional group to have this style and not make the entire soundscape with this muted, shouted chanting rap. A healthy ecosystem requires high levels of biodiversity.

Let's see if the music video can get the song to stick in my brain. Wow, I had a hard time finding it.

That...That was a weird music video. I'm not going to lie. I dig it. I'm always down for random criminal activity in music videos, but all of that for a candy bar? Really? I mean, I guess that could have been some sort of a protein or an energy bar, but that's a very different level of funny. Also, the expression on the clerk's face when that's what they want is priceless. There's an extensive amount of choreography in the music video while the world burns around them and chaos reigns.