After years of ready since their stint on 2021’s competitors present LOUD, KickFlip unveiled their frustratingly repetitive pre-release Umm Nice earlier this month. And with the discharge of their mini album right now, they grow to be 2025’s first main debut act. As I acknowledged again in Umm Nice‘s overview, I had hoped this group would balk present JYP Leisure developments and ship a extra idiosyncratic sound pushed by their youthful attraction.
Mama Mentioned will get us nearer to this intention than Umm Nice, but additionally takes two steps again. It nonetheless feels just like the company is giving all its boy bands the identical materials. For the lifetime of me, I can’t distinguish what makes a KickFlip totally different than a NEXZ. Their sound is heavy on sing discuss, choosing melodies that really feel extra like taunts than fully-developed, interconnected elements of a narrative. This fragmented method — continuously pinballing between singing, chanting and rapping — has been finished to demise and leads to music that feels extra like branding. I typically really feel like I’m listening to a industrial for JYP’s subsequent boy band slightly than their precise tune.
Wanting again by the company’s lineage, Mama Mentioned‘s sing-song refrain appears to be reduce from related material as 2015’s wonderful GOT7 single Simply Proper. Nonetheless, this hand-me-down comes together with loads of new-gen tropes, together with grating percussion and a scarcity of melodic creativeness. On the plus aspect, different elements of the monitor supply peeks at extra partaking decisions. I like the guitar that sprouts up through the pre-chorus and the finale presents some fascinating vocal interaction that ought to have been highlighted all through the tune. Sadly, Mama Mentioned‘s bratty power overshadows all of this and simply doesn’t work for me.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Manufacturing | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.5 |
Grade: C