Song Review:: n.SSign: Love Potion- Love Potion

• Release date: 2024 December 30

• Album tracklist: Apocalypse (:Superego), Love Potion, Running After Love, Pit a Pat, XOXO (Complete Me)

• Album runtime: 27 minutes

 Honestly, I'm a little surprised that this one was released, and I'm hoping that this is a gift of a song to help you feel good or comforted. I could have sworn that I did a review for them, but I didn't remember a new song coming out since I started this, and I have. I did their debut track as part of my effort to make the NINE.i reviews I did a little less lonely. So they're just over a year old, and I just learned that since I did their debut track, Eddie and Junhyeok have left the group so they're down to a group of seven, I think. Poor Eddie.

I haven't heard a song sounding quite like an *NSYNC sound out of any of these groups in a while, but wow. There's also a dose of mid 00s' girl group to the sound, especially at the beginning, that gives me some amusement. The song is a textbook example of head-bopping, toe-tapping new jack swing, and it's incredibly pleasant to listen to, but it lacks a certain sense of grit. Even in the harsher parts of the song, it's like it's been chromed over. 

Again, like with the instrumentals, the vocals are pleasant to listen to, maintained at roughly the same tone and dynamic level throughout the song. The rapping gives an excellent break to this sound, but the return to the song's equilibrium makes the vocals paler by comparison, which is frustrating. They've had songs that are a bit more vocally saturated, so I would have liked the songwriters and their company to give them something with more potential texture for their title track.

The music video is more or less a drug-induced mass hallucination, but can we take a minute to appreciate the use of color? Each member has an assigned color and that color is reflected in the lighting, background, and outfit. Some of them even have that color with their hair. That is so impressive. And then with the matching white outfits, it definitely gives it a sense of "though they're different as individuals, when they come together, they're united." I appreciate messages like that. There are also some extreme close-ups, and their use is brilliant. But what I really like and appreciate is how they become the shop owners/workers at the end, hereby trapping themselves and perpetuating the cycle. It's very fae.