Song Review:: LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, KATSEYE: Iconic by Mistake

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  • Release date: 2026 June 12
  • Album tracklist: ICONIC BY MISTAKE, ICONIC BY MISTAKE, ICONIC BY MISTAKE (Instrumental)
  • Album runtime: 9 minutes

 This is going to be the only comment I make in regards to this. Three of the NewJeans members have been officially back since December. This was released in June. I'd love to ask someone that is part of the decision-making Powers That Be what their rationale was for that exclusion when that would have been a great way to show unity with the groups and start the healing process with the fans. I wasn't going to do this song (I know, I know, chase me off with pitchforks later please) because there have been songs released by one of the groups that I didn't like enough that it's turned me off from all of the songs attached to that group. But the song now has two wins, so I have to review it for my weekly wins posts that I'm wildly behind on. I want to like this song. For the record. I want to be proven wrong. And everyone is officially eighteen or older with KATSEYE's maknae turning nineteen this year.

Wait, there's an instrumental. Three minutes of song. I'm glad it's being well-received so the HYBE groups can stop having title tracks under two-and-a-half minutes. This instrumental is so 8-bit videogame. I'm assuming that we'll be getting a lot of 8-bit instrumentals through the rest of the year and leading into 2027, which will quickly get tiresome for me, but the first few songs will be nice. There's something quite Castlevania or Devil May Cry to this instrumental, very action-y, very intense, high levels of adrenaline requires. The choreography for this had better be Dreamcatcher or LOONA or PinkFantasy intense to match this instrumental.

I won't be able to pick out any individual voices, full disclosure. I'm still not a big fan of the mumbled, sliding rapping. But. The level of repetition present isn't nearly as high as I thought it would be, and it's more intense than I thought it would be, which is nice, although I feel like strengthening up their voices instead of relying on that rather overused breathing as for so much if the song would have been a better choice to make it firmer, more powerful, and more swaggery. If you're going to have a song like this, you want to project power, and the breathiness softens the song and cuts the legs out from underneath the instrumental.

I love the storyline here. It's hilarious. It's like six different movies happening at once, and I am here for it.

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