While I haven’t been sold on Pixy’s title tracks thus far, last year’s b-side turned English-language single Bewitched hinted at a more beguiling sound. By dabbling in dynamic electronic textures, Pixy found a niche worth exploring further. So, when teasers suggested new single Villain might build on this momentum, my interested was piqued.
Opening with the tagline “Pixy has been reborn,” Villain is clearly designed as a new stage in the group’s career. With this in mind, the song succeeds in giving them a not-too-drastic makeover. Its best moments are quite strong, but I wish the producers tightened up the structure just a bit. The opening verse is a great example of this. The melody has a fun looping quality — hypnotic like an incantation. But before we reach the prickly chorus, the song plunges into a needless moment of inertia. The momentum slows to a crawl as we wade in instrumental murk for a few bars. This is disorienting in an unsatisfying way.
Luckily, Villain rights itself during its chorus and never looks back. From here, the track finds an addictive electro groove, creeping along with glee. The hook has a glitchy appeal, unsettled but super focused in its melodic intention. The second verse is even stronger, bringing a heavy dose of funk that keeps the energy high. And rather than sink back into that murky interlude we heard after verse one, the production remains brisk. This proves a much better set-up for chorus two. Villain climaxes in a chanted version of its central melody, bringing this musical rebirth to a fun conclusion.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I can confirm that the girls did their job really well. However, I’ve got some things to complain about. At first, the song sounds like it should’ve been released in late October, a few days before Halloween. In addition, the chorus is great but forgettable for me as there’s too much of this sing-talk, and I’m afraid I’ll have to listen to it 10 more times to remember.
Rating is about right.
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holy shit this is a fast review?? Deservedly though, villain has my favourite pixy chorus of their title tracks and I hope they go down this path
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Pixy was an interesting little side story to 2021 for me. Given i absolutely hated their debut track but little by little they began to expand their sound and I ended being a huge fan by years end. Andddd this continues the trend. Songs got a new groove but still feels pretty PIXY. Reminds me of their bside “Moonlight” from last year. 8.5 currently
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PIXY has given me a great title track and I’m satisfied.
I think the production is a lot cooler than it first sounds. Admittedly a lot of it can be covered up by the vocals, but strip it away and oh boy that instrumental version is amazing. All the subtle changes and transitions makes it fun to listen to. Makes sense considering apparently Villain was supposed to be just an intro I believe.
It’s not the best song on the album that’s for sure, but I can see why they chose it. The album is great by the way (with the exception of BG-esque Deja Vu). That trio of Villain-Breath-Natural is incredible and Swan Song is a great last track. Admittedly I would’ve loved Natural as the title track, but I’ll take Villain. Hoping Natural gets performed honestly, it’s such a banger, maybe even a BT?
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Its not perfect, but I will take it because it tries to do something different and does it on balance well enough.
For me, it tries to go soft without having established what loud is, and winds up in a middling softish arty sense of space and time that doesn’t have enough tension. The tight chords around the one note in the chorus are like SHINee-like, but SM would have added all sorts of weird chromatic progression around that one note. Think “Lucifer”, how is hovers on one note but moves and builds around that one note to create tension. Here, they just get stuck on one note, one chord. Its an easy fix, but clearly they didn’t think to incorporate it.
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Wow, I didn’t think I would like it at the beginning but I love it! The song gets better everytime I listen to it.
Also I just heard Youngjae’s highlight medley and the title Sugar sounds like its gonna be quite good.
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While I do prefer the more sharper and intense Addicted, I gotta admit Pixy really pulled this vibe off really well! I was curious how a cb would be without Ella, and I was pleasantly surprised by the groovy mid-pitch choice! It was pretty clean and cool! I especially liked Lola’s raps.
I’ve always thought Pixy was the closest to Dreamcatcher’s vibe but for some reason this cb made me think G-idle vibes 🙂
Also…. I wish somebody gives a song like this to Purple Kiss someday 🤣😭 I absolutely adore that group but I still haven’t found “THE SONG” lmao.
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I like this a lot. The clip deserves a funky motion design makeover to give it a cool summer vibe, and it would be perfect.
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I think the breakdown before the first chorus makes the second chorus more exciting. I can’t say if this was on purpose but I really appreciate the disorienting section
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This is like if Monsta X’s Gambler and (G)-Idle had a baby! I’m not familiar with this group (for some reason I get them mixed up with Purple Kiss, Pink Fantasy, and Rolling Quartz even though I know that one’s a band) but I might have to find out more.
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You should check out review the B-Sides from this album.
‘Natural’ is a Buried Treasure ready too dig.
I hope they will promote that too.
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THIS WAS SUCH A SURPRISE outside of whoever voiced that villain part i reallyllylylyly like this 9.5 for me perhaps
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Dropping by to add that the whole mini is worth a listen, it is cohesive and there are some great tracks, very pleasantly surprised here.
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The first part really put me off but then the song goes in a very interesting and addictive direction, and the final “lalala” part blew me away.
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