expérgoNMIXX's first mini album, released on 20 March 2023 with six tracks and the title track 'Love Me Like This'.
expérgo is NMIXX’s first mini album, released on 20 March 2023 with six tracks. The title track is ‘Love Me Like This’. It followed the second single album ENTWURF by six months, and the third single album A Midsummer NMIXX’s Dream came four months later.
JYP Entertainment’s album introduction describes the title track as an up-tempo R&B pop track that mixes street-vibe bouncy rap with an R&B vocal line. The same text calls the record the opening of Docking Station, the second series after New Frontier. The record’s name comes from the Latin for to awaken.
Idology carried the record in its round-up of the albums of March 2023, with two writers filing an entry each. Quibi wrote of the title track: “‘Love Me Like This’ is a hook song whose bounce and lightness stand out, and in which the rather solemn past is hard to recall.” He found the members’ performance still the thing that stands out here, and set the teaser beside the stage as his evidence: “From the album’s a cappella medley teaser video, which calls the film Pitch Perfect to mind, through to a performance that acts without a moment’s pause.” Of the brighter turn he wrote that “recalling that the moments which drew attention off stage were mostly the members’ lively, boisterous sides, the shift to a more cheerful and energetic mood also arrives naturally.”
Erin, on the same page, read the record as the place where the members’ singing is put out in front. Of the pre-release teaser she wrote: “This was signalled from the teaser video before release, in which they sang the highlights a cappella; a video that introduces the songs on voices alone, with no complicated or difficult backdrop, turns the existing definition of MIXX POP around.” Of the singing itself: “The dense, straight-thrown vocals, as though under high pressure, are the source that keeps the sense of excess — force added to force — from dying down even inside the chorus’s simple repeating structure.” Her entry closes: “They have made a change of colour that is not easy for a group, and their powerful, vivid singing will lend weight to new possibilities ahead.”
NME’s Gladys Yeo reviewed the record on 22 March 2023. She opened on the record’s name: “In Latin, expérgo means to awaken. And in this release, it seems that NMIXX’s producers have finally opened their eyes to making full use of the girl group’s greatest strength: their unparalleled vocal prowess.” Of ‘PAXXWORD’ and ‘My Gosh’ she wrote: “There’s no shortage of stunning moments in either track too, the group flexing their vocal dexterity with ease.” And of the members: “Haewon, Lily and Sullyoon have a seamless synergy, forming the backbone of every track. Bae also features far more prominently in this release, her deep, chic tone making its mark in ‘Love Me Like This’ and ‘PAXXWORD’. Meanwhile, rappers Jiwoo and Kyujin imbue each track with bursts of fresh, spunky energy.”
The title track ‘Love Me Like This’ is the track all three writers named. The album introduction describes it for the vivid percussion that runs through it, Quibi pointed to its bounce and lightness, and Erin read its murmured, repeating chorus as where its pull comes from.
Erin also named the pre-release track ‘Young, Dumb, Stupid’ and ‘Just Did It’. By the album introduction the first is a MIXX POP song moving between hip-hop and nursery rhyme, built on a round-form sample, and the second an upbeat pop song about the instant in which two people are connected as if by a miracle.
The tracks NME named as the record’s standouts are ‘PAXXWORD’ and ‘My Gosh’. The album introduction calls ‘PAXXWORD’ a track full of powerful, funky groove and ‘My Gosh’ a soft-pop song led by an acoustic guitar.
On Circle Chart’s weekly album chart the record entered at number two in week 12 of 2023, the week of release (19 to 25 March), with 660,874 copies sold that week. On the same chart’s monthly count it was number four for March 2023, with 679,398.
‘Love Me Like This’ entered Circle Chart’s weekly digital chart at number 74 in week 12 and rose to number 11 in week 16 (16 to 22 April), staying on the chart through week 21. The pre-release track ‘Young, Dumb, Stupid’ peaked at number 50 in week 15.
Claims in this story link to official or primary sources.
Sullyoon and Lily of NMIXX released 'The Moment', part 4 of the soundtrack to the Netflix original series Love to Hate You, at 6 p.m. KST on 16 February 2023. Their agency JYP Entertainment called it the group's first unit OST, and Hankyung TV called it the pair's first duet since their debut.
