Song Review:: NINE.i: 어쩌면

  • Release date: 2025 June 18

  • Album tracklist: 어쩌면

  • Album runtime: 4 minutes

 NINE.i have released new Korean music! I couldn't be more excited, even though this does come at a bittersweet moment, and it's really kind of a double whammy for me. First, my bias Jewon, enlisted the day before this dropped. Which I knew was going to happen because that's just what my life is now because of the number of boy groups I listen to and also his age and the non-popularity of the group (which deeply saddens me because their entire discography is incredible). Secondly, the sweetheart Seowon, who was the first one I knew by name, face, and behavior because of his time on Boys' Planet back in 2023, has left the group and the company and is also participating on Boys' Planet II. Please support my dude. He made it almost the end on the first one, the entirety of ZEROBASEONE seems to love him, and he got adopted by my man, Hui of Pentagon. So even though it's a bundle of very mixed emotions from me, I'm tentatively hoping this can serve as a little bit of a reset for the group and they can get some much-needed attention. And I'll continue to shout about how amazing they are and hope someone will listen. And they gave us a four-minute song.

The rock is definitely a new sound for NINE.i, and for this to be their first new music in Korean since the legal issues or whatever was going on, I like the expansion of their discography. Are you hearing this? Well, there might be some of you who wait until after reading my thoughts to take a listen. But once you finish reading and listen, I'm hoping you'll agree with me on that. Also, Vahn. You incredible human being. You glorious, glorious composer. Because as much as I like the steady, saturated rock throughout the song, the beats of rest after the song has metaphorically stomped its feet with the drums is just so satisfying to me. It's not even just the drums letting the song stomp its metaphorical feet, because the guitar also gets a bit of time to be dramatic. Like, I know that I'm partial to NINE.i on principle (my first group I saw in person and I'm nothing if not annoyingly loyal), and I know that I'm very partial to rock on principle, but genuinely, I need this song to get some traction for them, because it's that good. If you like the more rock sounds from your K-Pop, here you go.

The benefit to one of their members being the resident songwriter/composer is that Vahn has a good sense of his members' vocal capabilities, clearly. They sound incredible. We've got a delicious rock rasp to most of them, which is a surprise to hear, but I love this new direction. We've gotten soft, squishy songs from them. We've gotten the more energetic electronic songs. We've even gotten some angst from them. I think this is the first proper rock song we've gotten from them, and it's delightful to hear their vocal adaptations to the different genre. I'm so here for this. I do not have the words for this.

No music video. So here's just the song for y'all. (And as a treat, below the regular song, I'm including their recording behind.)


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