Review

Song Review: nævis – Sensitive

Posted on by 13 Comments

In a move that no one asked for, SM Entertainment is back with the second single from their virtual idol nævis. The agency seems intent on throwing money at this strange project, and I assume that’s part of a bigger goal of establishing virtual artists as a norm within the industry. After all, virtual performers can’t complain, get sick/tired or have potentially problematic past histories.

However, so much of K-pop relies on a parasocial relationship. Whether we like this or not, it’s only become a bigger part of the industry. Then there’s the issue of generative AI, which is used to create this nævis character. Given all this, it would take an absolutely astonishing song to get me remotely interested in a cartoon avatar I have no connection with. Sensitive isn’t a bad track, but it’s nowhere near “astonishing.” Instead, it feels like ‘modern K-pop 101’ — elements thrown into an AI model and spat out as a competent but generic song.

There are some decent melodies buoying Sensitive, though I’m not a fan of the slinky, energy-dulling chorus. The instrumental plods along with little character, offering a solid backbone that keeps things moving forward. And whoever’s providing vocals does a polished, functional job as well. Unfortunately, there’s a personality vacuum at the heart of Sensitive and that makes it almost impossible to relate to on a deeper level than “consumer and product.” This detached relationship is not enjoyable or effective and I don’t see the point in it.

Hooks 8
 Production 8
 Longevity 7
 Bias 7
 RATING 7.5

Grade: C

13 thoughts on “Song Review: nævis – Sensitive”

  1. Maybe we should’ve put this budget into giving Hyo an actual album, but hey, I’m not a money-hungry corporation that salivates at the prospect of integrating AI in creative fields where it does not belong.

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  2. The music vlogger Rick Beato has noted that contemporary songs that have 10-15-20 writers may as well be AI. There are no singular voices or personality that comes through with that many writers or with the computer generated version of the same.

    And so it is with this song. It sounds like every kpop song being released these days, because it has been fed and crafted from those same songs. It hits all the same beats, all the same measure counts, all the same color changes.

    Well, at least the AI vocal can sing in tune. Lolz.

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    • Did I hear of Rick Beato from a previous post of yours? It’s always funny how he eviscerates the Billboard top ten.

      That’s such an interesting point about the multiple writers. Like each one is there to check off a specific box of what a song needs but no one is addressing the song as a whole. So you just check off boxes and suddenly every song checks all the same boxes and sounds the same.

      I forget who the author was but they said your book is poor if you can’t follow most proper writing rules, but boring if you follow them all.

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  3. Meh, boring, generic dance slop you’d expect from an AI “artist”. SM, just focus on your existing artists, PLEASEEEEE

    6.75 (7, 7, 7, 6) for me.

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  4. Decided to bite the bullet and watch the mv; I hope that one person in particular in the comment section likening this THING’S voice to Hyoyeon and Wendy stubs their toe today.

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  6. I think the review nailed it, I can definitely vibe to this, but how can I even begin to connect on a personal level? Lots of missed opportunities with the melodies wasted on this experiment. I really do like the meat and bones of this song, it just won’t ever be on a top xx list I ever create, though I’ll bop to it when it comes up on my playlist a couple times a year.

    8,9,7,8 = 8

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  9. i find myself repeating this throughout the years, but virtual idols is not a new thing. They also can be extremely profitable with extremely large fan base. Look at Hatsune Miku, which arguable have a larger dedicated fabase than 99% of idol groups. Or Luo Tianyi

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  10. its so meh, just like the song before it

    i just think sm doesnt get it. yknow?

    1. hatsune miku and other vocaloid models (which other people sometimes have called virtual idols, though i personally disagree) are popular because the songs are written by producers with their own unique styles, with videos also made by people. illustrated by people, animated by people. the vocaloid tuning is by people. the 3d model you see in vocaloid concerts? by people. the band in the concerts? also people, visibly this time. if youre actually decently active in vocaloid circles you dont look for ‘wow a new hatsune miku song!’ no one talks like that. its wow a new gigaP song! a new jinP song! ayase song! deco*27 song! its about the producers, is what i mean. vocaloid is just like an instrument. every song and every performance is also a work done by people.
    2. virtual youtubers i.e vtubers also have a lot of good songs, imho. or at least i find a lot that fits me. ofc, nothing against people who dont find them or the concept of vtubers in general fun. but why did hoshimachi suisei’s bbibidiba hit the JP charts so good when it came out? because a real person sings it and puts some emotions/liveliness into it? real people worked on the song, the video, the little choreography for the tiktok stuff, and the 3d model rigging to make the model do the dance, whoever’s dancing while wearing the censors idk to active to motion capture?? thats just one song example. the point is the same. virtual youtubers are also projects of people.
    3. same as above but plave specifically, since theyre, yknow, kpop.

    i feel like sm is trying to AI so hard. youre not even a tech company, bro.. chill. theyre missing what makes these virtual projects so good aka because they have people behind it every step of the way. audiences know how to appreciate hard work and efforts of other people. and as the review said, its easier to connect with something you know is made by people. you connect with plave boys, the ones behind the model. you connect with the vtuber girls and guys, the ones behind the model. you connect with the vocaloid producers behind silly avatars and banger music, etc.

    you dont connect with i dunno, a prompt typed into some genAI website, tweaked a bit and released to the public. (im sure the actual process is not that straightforward, but still.)

    the other, related but a bit outside of that, issue is that im sure this.. naevis project stuff also has real people working on it, like, at least for marketing and shit. or visual or audio touch ups, idk, man. but by marketing it as AI to seem like a ‘high tech, advanced, future-embracing’ company, sm is basically making these people unappreciated by the wide audiences as well. (to be fair, an argument can also be said that kpop fans never appreciate the marketing, etc. and other behind the scenes support stuff of the industry itself, which, yknow, i get it.) (i just think its so much sadder now that the whole project is so deeply associated with AI it almost erases the presence of every human who’s worked on it.)

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  11. Super weird how her face keeps changing. First Tayeon, then Hyoyeon, now Karina.

    I actually am not generally opposed to the Naevis songs. I liked Done a lot, and both in lyrics and in music video it was a really interesting addition to the Aespa lore that I, admittedly, don’t really care about and think is kind of stupid. That being said, I think it’d be better if her voice was actually just the aespa girls all singing the same song and then getting blended together.

    I think they should probably focus less on Naevis in general, or like, give her a non-music video track every few aespa minis.

    This song is not that great, but I think if aespa had done it with different production, it could have worked a lot better.

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