NMixx Outdo Themselves with “Blue Valentine”

[https://seoulbeats.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251021_Seoulbeats_NMixx_Kyujin-279x300.png]Over the past few years, NMixx have consistently leveled up the quality and complexity of their music. They are known for theirexperimentation, both in genre switch-ups and densely layered production. However, the group has progressively grown moresophisticated with their genre melding, no longer needing to announce a change up or make sudden genre changes. “Blue Valentine,”the title track to their full album of the same name, combines pop rock and Jersey club while highlighting their strong, emotionalvocals. It manages to be both an unconventional pop song and one of NMixx’s most accessible title tracks. “Blue Valentine” is also poised to be Nmixx’s greatest commercial success yet: More than three years after NMixx’s debut, it istheir first song to reach number 1 on Melon’s Top 100. Why now, and why this song? While its more experimental flourishes such asits tempo changes may take a few listens to absorb, the song’s melodies are wistfully beautiful. Moreover, it tells an affectingstory of someone striving to hold on to a relationship she knows is failing (“If this love is over / I’d still dive back inagain”). Even without reading a single lyric, though, one feels the emotional tension through the contrasts of the slowed-downpre-chorus with the surging chorus and melancholic bridge – and the MV effectively reinforces the dynamic, bittersweet story toldin the music. “Blue Valentine” follows pre-release single “Spinnin’ On It,” which represents simultaneous feelings of love and hate through thepush and pull relationships of different pairings of members. “Blue Valentine” maintains the pre-release’s themes (and its sapphicovertones), but goes further with its musical and visual elements to complement the lyrics. For example, the MV reflects thecoldness of a relationship in a washed out color palette. As the speaker of the song insists on recommitting to the relationship,the members’ wardrobe includes pops of red. The color choices mirror Kyujin’s line in the second verse, “A flame in the icesurvives even if it becomes cold.”Some of the MV’s imagery is idealized (such as Haewon in angel wings), but much of the MV depicts the destructive nature of atoxic relationship. In one scene, Jiwoo feeds Sullyoon an object, and in the next shot, Sullyoon spits out dark blood. Anotherscene positions Kyujin with half of her body through a broken car windshield. Nevertheless, such danger does not stop the membersfrom pursuing these relationships – despite her terrible accident, Kyujin immediately logs into a computer (and in the next scene,Bae’s body emerges from a laptop screen). The members express the compulsion to pursue and fix the relationship. As Jiwoo andKyujin sing in the first pre-chorus: > A scar left deeply, reflection of red blood> A broken forever, I can see it now, can you see it now?> We’re like broken glass on the ground> Even if we can’t undo it, we can figure it out[https://seoulbeats.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251021_Seoulbeats_NMixx_Jiwoo-1024x573.png]The speaker’s desire to “undo” the broken relationship and “rewind” to a more ideal past comes across most strongly in thepre-chorus. The song slows down to half-speed, then accelerates back to its original tempo. The absolute highlight of MV comesfrom the filming and editing techniques to correspond with the tempo change. The members perform the choreography in the firstpre-chorus in reverse while the director also employs reverse filming. Meanwhile, the editing plays with speed, giving the image astop motion effect. As a whole, the scene feels uncanny and disconcerting, but utterly fascinating.   As the MV progresses, the imagery grows more outlandish, peaking in a sequence in which Bae lifts her shirt and the scene cuts tothe members dancing inside her ribcage. It seems obvious that the members performed in front of a green screen, with the ribsrendered in garishly unrealistic CGI. At first, it is not completely clear whether this unnatural look is intentional.Still, the ribcage scenes fit with the contrasts at the end of the MV. During the bridge, the MV depicts a more cinematic,ethereal scene with the members floating in space. Once the final chorus bursts forth with Lily’s brassy vocals, the scenestransition to a more realistic suburban setting, with the members dancing in ordinary casual wear. Bathed in white light, the‘real world’ scenes feel like memories. This impression particularly comes across in a brief aspect ratio change, making the frameresemble a photograph or Instagram post (and calling back to an earlier scene when Bae snaps a photo on a digital camera).[https://seoulbeats.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251021_Seoulbeats_NMixx_Haewon-1-1024x975.png]The MV intercuts its final choreography sequences between this suburban set and the ribcage backdrop. Strangely but fittingly, theMV contrasts an idealized world of memories with an ugly internal world. The last shot depicts the skeleton collapsing, suggestinghow a toxic relationship can leave a person emotionally shattered.“Blue Valentine” experiments with unsettling visual contrasts and unexpected musical shifts, but they are not simply trying topush boundaries. The MV’s bold choices serve the storytelling, portraying the conflicting emotions around clinging to a failingrelationship. In this sense, NMixx have created their most fully realized MV, one that deeply resonates with audiencesemotionally. (YouTube. Lyrics via Genius. Images via JYP Entertainment).