Song Review:: New-L: So Sweet- Sweet Palace

• Release date: 2025 July 18

• Album tracklist: Sweet Palace, Sweet Palace (Inst)

• Album runtime: 6 minutes

 Okay, so if y'all remember, one of my first debuts that I covered was the girl group New-L, and if I remember correctly, I mentioned that I hoped the group could work out some bugs in their next update in a video game metaphor. And I was actually just thinking about them a few weeks ago because they hadn't had a new release, I hadn't heard anything about them, and I was a little worried that they were going to be yet another group that debuts and then disbands within a year with only that release. But, I'm pleased to see this, even if it is only a single, because it means the group is still going. It also means, that of course I'm going to talk about it because if I can convince even one person to listen to them, then I will be satisfied.

And we have the solo instrumental track, so I'm a happy camper. The instrumental sounds a little bit like a track from a Final Fantasy soundtrack, definitely for a city over a village, but early enough in the story that the characters don't fully realize how bad things are yet, but edgy enough that we're starting to get that understanding. Like Luca from FFX over Bevelle or Guadosalam, or Lestallum from FFXV, for instance. There's a light-hearted whimsy to it that's occasionally offset by the techno claws gripping into it.

I think this song has the same problem that their debut single has, which is that the sound mixing is poor and the instrumentals are at constant risk of overpowering their voices. That is fascinating, especially since it isn't the entire song, but the points where the instrumentals should have gone a little softer to support the softer, sweeter vocals, it almost sounds like they get louder, and when, for instance, we have the rapping with the strong low voice, vocals that could have stood their ground against the predominant, skittering beat, we get them much softer. It's not something I'm necessarily upset about, because I think this one may have done a better job with the mixing than the debut track, but I am a little confused and very curious. I'd love to pick whoever's brain about why it's mixed like this. All of that and mixing issues aside, we've got basically everything I want in a song, especially from a girl group. We've got harmonizing, we've got voices with different textures, and we've got a lower voice that happens to be the rapper, but that's just satisfying to hear, because that means that they could pull out the three part harmonies fairly well if the company gave them those kinds of songs. 

I'm leaning towards calling this more of a performance video than a Vibes and Visuals. Which is fine. The lighting specifically for this is where I'm most interested because we've got both the soft lighting and glamour lense of the romance or romcom variety, which I'm here for, but also, the backlit blue lighting was a pleasant surprise to be seeing. I'm also kind of delighted by the fact that they have female backup dancers, and then kind of a reverse harem situation? I'm not entirely sure, but the whole thing was pleasant enough.