New JYP international boy group NEXZ debuted final 12 months however hasn’t but captured my consideration with their music. That is regardless of watching and having fun with season two of the Nizi Challenge the place the group was fashioned. Like fellow rookies KickFlip, it appears like JYP has saddled them with lesser materials that regurgitates music from the company’s previous. NEXZ have a brand new album on the horizon, preceded by Simmer. And but once more, I’m struck by this similar feeling.

The temper board this time flashes “Stray Children with a aspect of NCT.” Simmer‘s instrumental lurches with a mix of squelchy bass and pots-and-pans percussion, incorporating a maelstrom of irritating samples that solely litter the combo. A repeated phone motif is particularly annoying. This strategy might need labored if the producers had doubled the tempo, however the manufacturing’s leisurely tempo feels oddly inert. It’s not quick sufficient to bop to however not participating sufficient to get pleasure from by itself.

Simmer‘s efficiency is equally irritating. Between sing-song melodic scraps and lackadaisical rap, the observe plunges right into a uninteresting, repetitive hook that feels extra like an incantation than a compelling centerpiece. I benefit from the momentum throughout the pre-choruses the place the stream switches up and features focus, however these are temporary moments of enjoyable inside a really tiresome music. And like all of NEXZ’s music to date, my central problem stays: Simmer feels like a retread quite than a convincing try and develop their very own fashion.

Grade: D+