For this review I’m going to take a look at Nature’s newest mini-album, Nature World: Code M. Nature is a group for me that I’ve only just started liking their music, after being extremely disinterested in their earlier content. I will tell you I quite liked Nature World: Code A, so let’s see how I feel about Code M, starting with the music video for their title track, Girls.
The Music Video
I’ll be honest, I was just going to ignore this release as I have had a lot of stuff going on in my life and I’m just neutral towards Nature in general. What made me pay attention to it was a translated article that I saw posted on Reddit saying that the music video had to be changed due to extreme imagery, which seemed pretty incongruous with the image Nature has had up to this point, so I couldn’t not indulge my piqued curiosity.
I am pleased that I did choose to check this song and album out, as I think it’s pretty good in general. The video has an extremely dark edge to it with dark dilapidated rooms, rusty tubs with scissors hanging around them, and an alternate shot where the scissors are replaced with strung up teddy bears, and even a scene of one member choking another. My description does, admittedly, probably make it sound more intense than it really is, but it is dramatic and interesting, something fairly unique these days, darker than what we even see from groups like Dreamcatcher in my opinion.
The styling is great as well, basically all white and black dresses, which really enforce the coldness of the world built up in the video. There’s also an edge of sadness brought with these pretty dresses and hairstyles being stuck in such a run down looking set, and that contrast really helps to amplify the emotions of the song itself. I will say that I have heard some mixed opinions on the styling in general, but I’m for it. The choreography looks fine, nothing crazy, but it suits the song and video pretty well, so credit where it's due in that regard, but it is not the kind of choreo that’s going to go down in kpop history either.
Rating: 9/10
It’s a genuinely good and visually engaging video, I’m not sure it's exactly what parents want their kid to see, and I’m not into super dark imagery myself, but I really like it, and it will make it to the top part of my year end music video rankings.
The Songs
Girls- I like a lot of what’s going on in this song. First, there’s a cool contrast between the sadness of the lyrics and vocal tone and the upbeat nature of the music, which is a nice dynamic. Second, the edm chorus is right up my alley, easy to listen to rather than loud and aggressive. Third and last, the chanty bridge and chorus section work super well for me, even though chanty is not always to my taste, it’s used well here.
DIVE- Structurally, the chorus to dive is pretty similar to Girls, light EDM with a bit of singing, but in practice, I like it’s execution far less in this song, it’s just a little too low key for me, which is an unusual pitfall for a genre that tends to go big in general. The rest of the song is decent, but it just fails to really take me anywhere, so it’s in the average range for me.
B.B.B (Never Say Goodbye)- Guess what? If you guessed that this song has that same chorus structure you’d be right. This kind of chorus has become the norm in kpop in that last few years, but it’s not often every song on an album, and the lack of variation is notable to me here, it leaves this feeling too similar to the prior songs. That said, I think I like this a little more than Dive, it’s just got a much more catchy tone to me.
Rating: 6.5/10
This rating is more or less carried entirely by Girls and it’s music video, both of which I think are absolutely fantastic. That said, the other two songs on the album are, I feel, lacking in an energy that compels you to want to keep listening to them more, and they mostly leave me wanting to go back to Girls after I listen to them, and I’m averaging all that out into the 6.5 score. I don’t think this is as good as Code A, or a number of albums that have come out just this year, but Girls will likely be in my top 10 songs and music videos for the year, so check that out, and if it sticks for you, check out the rest of this album or jump to the more dynamic Code A, Nature has some good music out there for you.
How did you feel about this album, am I underrating the b-sides or overrating Girls? Is the music video too dark, or not dark enough? Hit me up in the comments here or on this article’s corresponding Instagram post and let me know how you felt about this album, I think it’s great to share our thoughts and opinions, everybody views things differently, and that’s the beauty of music.