Song Review:: I:MOND: Under My- Wonderland

• Release date: 2025 February 14

• Album tracklist: Wonderland, Unusal, Flashlight

• Album runtime: 11 minutes

 Independent and self-founded company? Well, they debuted under a different one, left within the year, and founded their own company, and this is their first album under their new company. Two of the members are former members of X:IN and Melody Pink. The maknae turns 24 this year, and the eldest turns 27, so they're fully adults at this point, which, again, is something that I'm incredibly supportive of. Wishing you all the best, I:MOND.

Ticking clock is a good way to start this. I thought this was going to be soft and fluffy, but there are shades of GFRIEND and AOA to the group. The mellow, R&B-esque sections have a rolling rhythm that both propel the momentum forward and slide seamlessly between the higher energy dance pop. They're surprisingly well-done instrumentals that move without sharp breaks, because even when the energy drops, it builds back up quickly by re-layering instruments back over it, and within two bars if I'm correct about this being in 4/4 time, so even though the energy does drop, you don't really have a chance to settle and have to get the momentum going again.

The vocals are fairly high for the most part, but they aren't soft and fluffy and breathy. They're very well-supported with belts and brief flashes of showmanship and drama. The rapping is at a similar quality to the singing, which helps to create a more cohesive whole throughout the song. It's a surprising and welcome departure from the millennial gray vibes that has been going through the girl groups especially the last little bit. These vocals have some color saturation and vibrancy, which I appreciate. 

I think this has the absolute bare minimum of story you can possibly get, but I don't think it has enough to move it out of visuals and vibes territory, which is a little bit of a shame, but if you're working with a low budget, as I suspect they might be, with your own company and having to pay for everything yourselves, with music videos being expensive and they get astronomically more expensive the more things you try to include in them, I understand it. I applaud the storyline effort. However, I also think that they've got a sort of fairy or trickster concept going on, which I enjoy, and there are clearly different kinds of fairies happening here. And honestly? This is really well done. I'm really impressed with what they're doing with an independent label.