Quick Reviews: NMIXX return to the highlight medley as a song concept with arguably worse “DICE”

Earlier this year, NMIXX debuted with “O.O”, which was basically a highlight medley for a mini-album more than any kind of cohesive song. Now sometimes that can work and be interesting given that the sections are appealing in their own way, but “O.O” was for the most part grating at best.

Why mention that in a review for their follow-up “DICE“? Because JYP Entertainment has basically staked NMIXX’s future on this three-in-one musical concept working. “DICE” is in a similar vein in terms of having no synergy, but also none of them are all that melodic individually. Even with “O.O” at least the middle part could’ve developed into a solid pop-rock effort, but the most appealing section of “DICE” was the “let’s roll the dice, yeah” hook, and even that made me wince while listening because its mixing (ironically) made it feel like NMIXX was yelling at you and the brass was delivered directly to your brain stem. The whole thing was just so busy, like they were desperately trying to create epic moments to no avail.

I can already see people talking themselves into this because they like the group’s visuals and/or to be different and/or because they decided to stan pre-debut and can’t back out now, but this is just an unappealing mess of a musical concept all around and I hope JYPE can improve things from here for NMIXX’s sake.