Review

Song Review: NMIXX – Dice

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NMIXX - DiceRookie group NMIXX are attempting to craft a new K-pop sub-genre with songs that mix various sounds and structures together. Imagine if K-pop’s highlight medleys turned into songs themselves and you have an inkling of their style. I admire anyone trying to push things forward, but NMIXX need to find some new collaborators immediately. This evocative structure only works if its individual pieces are compelling on their own.

I was pretty hard on debut track O.O earlier this year because… well, the song was kind of awful. But after experiencing it live at this year’s KCON, my thoughts have softened. As Frankenstein-esque as it may be, O.O has definitive highlights that carry it across the line. Its rock-fueled centerpiece is worth waiting for. New single Dice isn’t so lucky. It’s pretty unbearable from start to finish – a joyless excursion in posturing without purpose. There is no satisfying oasis to wait for. It’s just one hack job hook after another.

At the outset, Dice seems like it may take a novel direction. It offers a flurry of cinematic orchestral stabs, calling back to the opening credits of a vintage cinema. But, this quickly dissipates as the song’s rote sing-talk verses reveal themselves. It’s “girl crush” style, left on the counter a few days and reheated in a microwave. There’s nothing new here.

As expected, Dice takes numerous diversions from this point. Each road is an immediate dead end. We’ve got inartful pots-and-pans breakdowns, melodic moments pitched far out of the singers’ comfort zones and plenty of overexaggerated “let’s roll the dice!” catchphrasing. It feels more like branding than music, and it’s over too soon to make any impression beyond a brief headache. It’s worth remembering that this failed amalgam comes from the same agency that brought us debut-era tracks like Tell Me, Bad Girl, Good Girl, TT, and Dalla Dalla. With this perspective in mind, I honestly feel bad for NMIXX.

Hooks 4
 Production 6
 Longevity 7
 Bias 4
 RATING 5.25

63 thoughts on “Song Review: NMIXX – Dice”

  1. This is what a hot mess sounds like.

    … They drop into a reggae-style beat for the 2nd verse which reminded me of TVXQ “Rising Sun” famous break. I don’t think it is a coincidence. It also doesn’t really work here, for all of the above reasons.

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    • nmixx dice is not bad. the part where ¨big wave, big wave¨ comes in, the song doesn sound ridiculous. nmixx is not gonna give up. cause all the members are beautiful. there is nothing that is ridiculous about “DICE¨. YOU HEAR ME?! NOTHiNG RIDICULOUS.

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    • Something about some of the girls’ vocal tones annoy me. No offense to the girls themselves, but they sound so much better singing and they do have the skills for it too. There are plenty of idols out there who do girl crush, but because the tones of many of the NMIXX girls are kind of sharp and almost grating, the talk singing becomes more annoying than what it should be. I can bear most of it, but the saving grace of NMIXX is the presence of Sullyoon and Lily who greatly contrast the rest of the harsher vocal tones. Unfortunately, because there is barely any actual singing lines, it just makes them sound annoying. T.T

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  5. I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking that this is a lot worse than O.O. The initial reaction among the social media spaces I frequent is that this comeback is better than O.O, which got me confused because I felt like the whole song was aimless. While O.O does bring us to an unexpected direction, the reason why I still feel satisfied at the end is because it brought it back to the same chorus as it did in the beginning. It made its statement, then went back to whatever it started in the beginning so it was alike it went full circle. It at least had a sense of direction.

    Dice on the other hand feels aimless and unsure of where it is going. It knows it wants to make a statement, but does not have a vision on how to exactly go about it, which makes it pretty much fall flat overall despite some hints of promise sprinkled here and there (the dance break is not half-bad production wise!).

    Overall, O.O >>>> Dice (O.O is around the 8s for me while DICE is like 5/6 😦 )

    I’m not sure if Dice will age as well as O.O did for me, but I’m quite sad that this is what JYP came up with for NMIXX. They are arguably the most talented vocal group of their generation yet it their skills are pretty much wasted in a song like DICE. The b-side is so much better.

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  7. If they separated O.O and released the superhero and baila part as individual songs, that would’ve been miles better. I really want to like NMIXX but the HYBE girl groups are already releasing mini-albums of good music

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  8. genuinely unclear to me what jyp is trying to achieve with nmixx, but for now it just seems like they’re wasting the considerable talent these girls have. a shame!

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  9. NMIXX’s previous songs took forever to grow on me, but perversely I liked this one right from the start! I’ve been thinking about how when Lady Gaga finally hit it big, a lot of people credited it to the fact that people were really desperate for something new and fun. I feel like that’s what NMIXX is trying to do, and if they could pull it off it would be huge.

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  10. these girls are SO talented but they keep getting shit like this as a poor excuse for music. O.O was memorable in one way or another but this is just boring. keep them away from JYP and THE HUB immediately

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  11. The way I woke up at 5am for this comeback. Oh well 😹 but in all seriousness their singing voice should only be utilized instead of this. really wanted them to be like red velvet with those amazing voices especially with top tier vocalist lily

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  12. When I played the MV I was pleasantly suprised. I thought they were going for some kind of classic 20/30s casino Lady Luck persona. But then it turns into a budget aespa instrumental with grating vocals worse than Itzy’s recent title tracks. Whatever is going on with JYPE’s vocal direction and mixing really needs to change. Hopefully “experimental” won’t serve as a term to justify bad music for much longer because this ain’t it.

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  13. I heard somebody say that Nmixx is kpop Death Grips, which is pretty hilarious but also strangely accurate. They have the most interestingly awful music I’ve heard in a while, and I kinda love it in an ironic way. At the very least they are entertaining trainwrecks as opposed to generic filler.

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  14. mmm I did not expect such an intense review this morning!!
    I listened to this song like 8 times on my morning commute, trying to wrap my head around it. I think I was trying to convince myself there was something here for me, because I do like how brass heavy the instrumental is…at times it reminds me of Outkast and I even enjoy the instrumental of the first giant shift. I do have a softspot for that kind of pitched tom hip hop production.

    But vocally and hook wise, it’s all off….there isn’t so much to sink your teeth into and the song clocks in under 3 minutes. IT’s a huge mess. the hook don’t sink in enough to make structural pillars. There’s too much shifting that the return to the “chorus” isn’t gratifying…whatsoever.

    I also don’t like that they used a lot of the same approaches to shift sections/genres/moments in the song as O.O…I guess they want it to be a signature…but it doesn’t work.
    What a bummer!

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  16. I just cannot appreciate the fact that the girls are doing this terrible, structureless shit which has got no sense of depth and its existence overall. Because of this, I will never stan NMIXX. Their concept is just not my thing. At all. That’s it. Flat 5 for me.

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  17. Err…well, I’ll give the girls some positivity this morning and say I quite enjoyed the b-side COOL? It was a surprisingly pleasant listen; amazing what can happen when you give your vocalists a chance to actually sing!

    Still love TANK though. It’s the fun kind of experimental weird nonsense I can get behind. These title tracks though? No…no, definitely not for me.

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  18. To put it nicely… this one is just b-a-d: no redeeming quality whatsoever. Even the choreography is not good, at all.

    When even the granddaddy of experimental K-pop, my dear SM, has been super hit (hyperpop aespa) or miss (NCT 127 :(((), GP-friendly JYP should really just stop trying to be something they’re not: experimental. The outcome will most likely be bad.

    I feel kind of bad for the NMIXX girlies. Along with aespa, I think they’re the most well-balanced and skilled 4th gen group. Yet they’ve been “blessed” with two consecutive garbage. Wake tf up, JYP.

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  19. I shall endeavor to pretend that Onew’s Dice was the only song with that title that I heard this year. I think I’ll go give it a listen right now actually.

    With some help, this concept could be really, really cool. But every time we shifted to the different disparate pieces of this song, I forgot what the previous one sounded like, and that’s not a good thing.

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  20. I share the same sentiment. For an agency that crafted careers like Twice and Itzy and bangers like Dalla Dalla, Wannabe or most of Twice’s discography, Nmixx has become their little experiment in bad music. Some producer has a bet with another on whether good music propels careers or agency clout? From the social media reactions, clout is enough apparently for even a rookie group to sail through waterless streams. I didn’t like their debut track but it had its moments, some of the hooks were catchy and there were highlights. This track is noise pollution throughout. Not a single beat is memorable (or likeable). Like who even approved this? And which career should they actually have?

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  21. It’s fun lmao. As long as I stop overthinking and just rewire my brain for this the same way I did for the NCT stuff… it’s fun. Now I am not the kind who forces myself to like a song just because of the group or anything. There are plenty of kpop songs out there that I find grating, boring or that I don’t like – but this one did not rub me the wrong way lol. I like O.O a lot better too and no way am I gonna scream this is a masterpiece or anything but I’m not gonna treat this as the kpop apocalypse as a lot of people are either lol. 🤣🤣 It’s fun.

    Vocals were good as always to me as I like their tones personally, Fun MV with the cards and Cheshire Cat references etc, Dance Break was cool and the instrumental at that particular part was especially nice.

    But in other things…. DAMN, THAT BSIDE IS GORGEOUS!! I got feels right from the snippet and the full version is as COOL as I expected. Definitely gave me chills! I liked Cool (Your Rainbow) over Dice at this point but who knows how much this would grow. I stomped all over O.O on day 1 and look at me now… 😂

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  22. I feel like they should do some ninja sht and hire 3racha under some pseudo producer name because some of the verses in this song reminds me of what stray kids would do (especially the chorus moments) but some things just doesn’t sound right or full enough to pass as a great hook. In O.O their strengths are clearly shown and every member was showcased, but in this, they were just given very forgettable lines that just mish-mashed together wrongly.

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  23. nah because when i say this is a 9 for me…. actually really good imo and the two parts thing works better in this song also i really like the nmixx change up lets go catchline

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  24. “It’s worth remembering that this failed amalgam comes from the same agency that brought us debut-era tracks like…”

    Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I definitely feel jyp’ed.

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  27. Thanks to their ‘Blind Package’ thought experiment JYP proved conclusively that a certain segment of the market will literally purchase ANYTHING they put out.

    It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to exist – especially if it’s ‘different’. They’re redefining music all right, to the point that the word is starting to lose its meaning.

    This’ll no doubt sell by the truckload, you can definitely fool some of the people all of the time.

    Bleh.

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  28. JYP should stop trying to do what SM does and leave songs seperate. At least SM makes them sound good. This is just a mess. Poor girls, their talent is being wasted on stuff like this. Poor Lily for waiting for so long just to get songs like this.

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  29. I liked it a lot. The salsa, the Taeyonging, the whip-crack transitions, they were all things I usually dig and i dug them. I liked the b-side as well, even though it was kind of a RV Psycho rewrite. It’s a “throw everything at the walll” k-pop mood. And the instrumental is fun.

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  32. They are one of the most well rounded groups in the industry right now, they have the vocals, the moves and I guess the rap, but where’s the good music? Cause at this point they have one of the most disappointing discographies out there, and they have like a couple of songs … I’m not expecting much from them.

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  33. I kind of see what JYP are trying with NMIXX’s sound, this loud, mildly Latin-influenced sound with experimental structure could work, but it doesn’t. I think the reason is JYP still has no idea what made aespa so successful; the fact that while their songs are bonkers, there are several melodies clashing, rather than various non-melodic segments clashing. SM sticking with aespa’s concept paid off, but I am not sure this will pay off for JYP, unless they are severely willing to invest in good songwriting.

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  35. The song is so problematic. JYP needs to stop the SM-ish experimental song genre because they are not good with it. NMIXX is becoming NMISS and this needs to stop. The girls are falling a lot behind the rookie girl groups that releases catchy and music to the ears songs

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  36. O.O is still unlistenable to me so the rating for Dice gave me a fright.

    For me Dice is much, much better than O.O
    At least I can listen to Dice on repeat (or let it play in the background), no need to turn off the sound everytime it comes up unlike with O.O

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  37. I genuinely liked it. Dice is the Switch-Up-Concept executed perfectly. Messy, but in a good way. I love the verses and the pre-chorus is fxxking epic. COOL is horribly boring through and definitively a step down from TANK, even through TANK had that awful chorus. I guess you can’t have everything.

    DICE is a nice surprise after the disappointment of SHUT DOWN.

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  40. They are misusing Lily’s vocals and ruined it for me, thanks J*P🙄 Like some comments mentioned, the vocals do sound a bit annoying. WHY J*P WHY, this is not how you experiment. PLEASE

    btw Twice’s debut song is Like Ooh-Ahh, not TT🥹

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  41. I’m a bit conflicted. I like that the group did another song with big switch ups.the path the song took from However, as much as I like where the instrumental goes what the girls do above isn’t really engaging. The prechorus was my favorite part in this regard. I can’t really tell the seven members apart and the performance was flat overall. Still interesting to me, so maybe an occasional listen every now and again

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  42. I honestly don’t understand JYP at all. I feel for the girls; they are super talented, but they’re not talented rappers like Blackpink. Aespa aren’t as talented rappers as Blackpink either, to tell the truth, but SM has some incredible producers who can work out cutting edge production in this experimental style (whether you like the style or not, I do love it). Here they lack the rap skills and the producers and without these two the writing falls apart in this style. All the shouting and frantic layering of shouting voices is there cause the beat is weak and the only way to give it energy is to shout 🙂
    But JYP has some producers like Versachoi who work with Stray Kids and could do this hip hop style well, so I don’t understand why he doesn’t put him to work with NMIXX. Either this, or change style. This year IVE and New Jeans have put out such outstanding songs without any need to mixx styles or rap like Lisa or whatever other gimmick: just great music. I am so confused about why JYP is doing what he’s doing with NMIXX. To me this is possible worse then O.O – it’s shoutey all the way and lacks even any spark in any moment.

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  43. I was actually kinda enjoying the chorus. It’s definitely a bit too high for them, but it’s catchy.

    Then the second verse came in and I was just like… nope. This is the epitome of fucking around just for the sake of fucking around.

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  45. I actually liked the song, especially the music video. Even though it was very mismatchy, I like that in songs. IDK a lot about music theory, so that might be why I love the song sm haha, I especially loved the “Big Wave Big Wave” part and the beat in the background

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  47. I’ve had Nmixxed feelings about this song. At first, when I heard it I thought… I like some parts of that but it’s a bit too much. Maybe they should tone it back to the level of “I Got a Boy” or “Next Level.” I was a bit exhausted at my first few listens but later on I went back to them and listened more…. and more. Now I think it’s fantastic. I don’t know why I kept listening but something about it intrigued me (the same thing happened with O.O). I actually like the “let’s roll the dice” part and think this is a better song than O.O (although in O.O I mostly just like the middle part about “superheroes”). I enjoy frequent changes in music, and it’s certainly not boring. These are probably unpopular opinions, but no-one can help what they like.

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  48. I LITERALLY DONT GET HOW PPL DONT LIKE THIS SONG?? EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS LITERALLY JUST MWAHH. THEIR BEST SONG FRFR. I WILL NEVER GET OVER THE DANCE BREAK AND SULLYOONS HIGHNOTE.

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  49. I’ve watched every live stage for this and it has drastically improved my opinion of the song. I wouldn’t listen to it on its own, but they are incredible live performers and I’m convinced to roll the dice a little bit! I am always a fan of experimentin even if the execution isn’t quite there over the same old stuff, and I think Nmixx is offering a very fresh and theatrical approach to girl crush tropes. I’m stil not sure if I like their music or if I simply like how completely different and campy it is, but I’m interested in them and where they’ll go from here. In particular I really love Lily’s voice and Jiwoo’s rapping! If they can blend their mixxpop approach with some killer melodies and a massive chorus I’d be very happy to call myself a Dice apologist

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