Song Review:: xikers: HOUSE OF TRICKY : SPUR- BREATHE

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  • Release date: 2025 April 04
  • Album tracklist: You Hide We Seek, BREATHE, HIGHWAY, Roller Coaster, Rock Your Body
  • Album runtime: 15 minutes

 I don't care that I'm doing this ridiculously out of order according to my draft list. When xikers releases a new song, everything else gets put on hold. Also, I'm about to be in all caps for a moment out of my excitement for this because I came in shortly after the release of their second mini album, I've never had an OT10 comeback. AND JUNGHOON IS BACK, BABY! The kids are a complete group again! I may have wanted them to get their first win with Witch because that song is brilliant, but the storyteller in me also didn't want it then because they weren't complete again yet. Now, they are, and it would be so narratively satisfying for the story of the group to get that first win now. And I'm pleased with the runtime.

They're really going hard with the horror instrumentals right now, aren't they? This is like a dark EDM thing that would be in Scooby-Doo. I can't wait to see the music video. It's also very video game, like a song that would be featured in the trailer for an action horror game. This is so moody and atmospheric, but aggressively so. And the opening feels kind of like the carousel sequence from Squid Games season 2, so, needless to say, this is almost tangibly evocative.

I'm still not immediately into songs that are predominately rap, but I also know that xikers's stage presence is as good as ATEEZ's despite the fact that they have years less experience. So I'm looking forward to their comeback stages because they're incredible performers. But, despite my personal tastes, even I can tell when someone is a good rapper, and xikers has a trio of them with distinct styles. And vocally, a lot of what this song has going on is similar to what they did for Supercalifragilistic, from their third mini album, HOUSE OF TRICKY : Trial and Error. The underlying instrumentals aren't the same, but describing BREATHE as Supercalifragilistic 2.0 would not be an inaccurate statement. So there is that. xikers has a sound and they're doing a very good job of building on that sound. At one point last year, I heard them described as along the lines of "the biological child of Stray Kids that got adopted by NCT and ATEEZ." I sent that to my Stay friend and then we got to talking about the family dynamics and came to the conclusion that (Stray Kids + ????) * (ATEEZ + NCT) = xikers, which she thought was hilarious because NCT and Stray Kids are basically step-brothers. And then I went full k-drama and decided that the missing parent was Monsta X because they were largely in the military at the time and didn't know they had children with Stray Kids yet. But, despite the soap opera drama I injected into this, months later, I still think that describes xikers's sound pretty accurately.

Okay. Music video time. Am I prepared for this? No. Am I excited for this? Absolutely. Their music videos are incredible and I'm ready for more lore.

I wasn't sold on Hunter's blond when we got a look at it before the music video. I'm still not sure how sold on it I am, but I've warmed up to it. So I'm pretty sure that we're either seeing the Lore Xikers in fully swing of their powers, or at the very, very, very start, when they're literally still trying to figure out what's going on. I'll figure it out when I buy the album tomorrow. Also, I deeply love how much screen time Junghoon gets, especially with him and his leader of the xikers demon line self taking the point position toward the end there. I also love how much he and Hyunwoo are paired up, considering the two of them are besties and it's cute. And, of course, if we watch a xikers music video, we need to look at the choreography and the repeated "breathe" section is really cool especially, but then they do phenomenal work with their choreography, as difficult as it is. Stunning. Absolutely glorious.

And as always, I've got songs I like better. I've accepted the state of existence But also, Rock Your Body? What is this? They went full R&B for that song. It's probably the closest thing that they'll come to a ballad, but they're showing off vocals that don't get shown off as strongly very often or clearly. HIGHWAY is also an incredible song.



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