Another idol group has been tossed into the dustbin of history. This one especially hurts. Happy trails, Nine Muses.
In the past, I’ve made no secret of my belief that Nine Muses (well, more like Four Muses by the time this goodbye song came out) was one of the most underappreciated, hidden gems of mainstream idol K-Pop music, and their constant teetering on the knife edge of disbandment was only the icing on the cake. We all saw this breakup coming; Remember only makes it official.
Nine Muses was especially rewarding to follow throughout their entire career; debuting in 2010 with the much-maligned No Playboy and a misguided, soon-abandoned “model idol” concept, they executed a hard pivot sometime in 2011 and would go on to have a run of top-notch title tracks that is frankly unrivaled by most any other group.
Here is a list of every single Nine Muses title track from 2011 to the present. There isn’t a single runt in the litter, and each and every one of them deserves a listen:
- Figaro
- News
- Ticket
- Dolls
- Wild
- Gun
- Glue
- Drama
- Hurt Locker
- Sleepless Night
- Remember (not to be confused with this column’s Remember)
- Love City
I still maintain that Love City, which was buried without a trace upon its release, was one of the best songs of 2017. (Some of my other favorites from the above list include News, Ticket, and Sleepless Night.)
In my write-up of Dolls, I posited that “Nine Muses is one of those groups that exist in that uncomfortable grey area between success and failure”. It looks like they found a sweet spot after all—albeit on the wrong side of the coin.