I am obsessed with this EP, I’ve been listening to it non-stop since release and thinking how well their evolution to a more mature sound has been handled and man, I think it deserves so much credit.
Their early stuff: ILLIT obviously had one of the most successful debuts in kpop history with ‘Magnetic’. The following releases all more or less kept that musical and thematic identity, dreamy, playful, whimsical youthful sounds and mostly revolving around crushes and other stuff characteristic of young love.
Then came ‘Not Cute Anymore’, a bit out of nowhere I think? At least for me. Way more groovy, laid-back and adult sound, maybe a bit rebelious with that nonchalant vibe? But still big dreamcore vibes, for example with the sound effect right at the start of the song. Clearly a shift to a different sound but with enough to make it ‘ILLIT’ still. Thematically it works great, massive vibes of the teenager who’s trying to define what they want to be seen as, when most people might still be hung up in their more child-like qualities and failing to see them as a more independent individual with their own likes and ambitions and what not. And of course it also worked great because of the play between the title ‘Not Cute Anymore’ and it still being quite cute as a song.
And that’s the perfect stepping stone to their last two releases, ‘Mahmilapinatapai’ and ‘Break Even’. Their music was always very dance-pop oriented but now they’re coming out with these big electronic, techno, garage, hyperpoppy sounds. And thematically still very much around the theme of young love but much more assertive, much more confident and self assured. “Who’s your bias? It’s me!” “I want more!” and how much more assertive can you be than saying the person who’s been stringing you along is under arrest lol.
Anyway bit of rambling but I just love what they’ve been doing so much. I wasn’t suuuper into ILLIT before NCA but this sequence of NCA-Mahmilapinatapai-Break Even made me a huge fan.
submitted by /u/lmm310
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