It’s 364 days since NewJeans debuted and injected new energy into the K-pop scene. The then-freshly unveiled rookies instantly captured imaginations with their refreshing approach to what a girl group could sound like, harnessing elements of ’90s R&B and pop with modern production, wrapping it up in a Y2K aesthetic. It was out of step with anything anyone else was doing at the time, and all the more brilliant for it.
While the sounds the five-piece utilise have become more commonplace in K-pop over the last year, NewJeans are still leading the pack – and quickly becoming contenders on the international stage with only one mini-album, last year’s ‘New Jeans’, and the single album ‘OMG’. A day before their one-year anniversary, they’ve returned to further solidify their status as the group to watch and they’re fully aware of the attention on them. “All eyes on us NewJeans / So fresh, so clean,” they sing in ‘New Jeans’, the opening track of their sophomore mini-album ‘Get Up’. It feels like a subtle mission statement – a vow to keep carving out their own lane.
Since the beginning, NewJeans have presented an intoxicating combination – fresh and cool, but with an air of sophistication and poise; the sound of youth but delivered in a way that bypasses the chaos whirlwind of teen life in favour of something put-together and in complete control. On ‘Get Up’, the six songs largely feel like they’re a conversation – with the listener, but also with themselves.
Over Jersey club rhythms and breakbeats, ‘Super Shy’ shares the story of crushing on someone new and overcoming timidness to secure their affections. At points, the beat mirrors the jittery feelings of approaching a crush, while Haerin laments: “I’m usually pretty talkative, what’s wrong with me? / I don’t like that.” It’s a motivational anthem for introverts and an instantly enlivening competitor for song of the summer.
‘ETA’, though, seems to approach this blossoming relationship from another perspective, warning the girls from the song before they could be about to get hurt: “I saw it before but when you weren’t there / Sprinkling his gaze everywhere.” Upbeat, chopped up brass adds energy but also urgency to the track and, in the chorus, NewJeans form a support group to help deal with this player. “Mmhmm / What’s your ETA, what’s your ETA,” they chant. “I’ll be there right now, lose that boy on her arm.”
It would be easy for the narrative of the project to slide into topics of empowerment after that, but instead it walks a more complex path. There’s plenty of dramatic realism in these songs, even if it’s whispered into them, from the UK garage-driven ‘Cool With You’’s shunning of what the rest of the world is saying about their partner (“You can come back / I don’t care what other people say”) to the fragile, fraught fight implied in the dreamy interlude track ‘Get Up’. “Get up, I don’t wanna fight your shadow,” they hush. “Meet you back in five if I matter to you / Like you say I do.”
As things come to an end with ‘ASAP’, NewJeans seem like they’re in the head-in-the-clouds soft rush of love. “Thinking I’m done talking I tap red / Remembered something so I ring again,” they sigh happily, depicting the modern version of talking on a landline, twirling the cord in your fingers as you gossip. It’s a gorgeous conclusion regardless of which interpretation you side with, the five-piece’s “tik tok tik tok tik tok tik” refrain a brain-scratchingly addictive phenomenon between fluffy pillows of pop beauty.
As first years go, NewJeans’ had been nothing short of a dream even before ‘Get Up’. Now, though, with six more flawless songs and yet more songwriting credits for Haerin and Danielle, they’re capping off their first 12 months and introducing the next round in divine style. Thanks to this mini-album, all eyes will continue to be on them and we couldn’t be more excited to see where they go next.
