I’m a bit bogged down a bit at the moment and thus catching up on K-pop releases and news, which makes the fact that I rushed to post about ARTMS‘s “Icarus” all the more telling. This is a rare occasion for K-pop in 2025 where I was undoubtedly intrigued by everything about a release and felt compelled to jot down my thoughts, which makes it a worthwhile endeavor on its own.
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Understandably a lot will be made about the totality of the presentation of “Icarus”, from visuals to performances to music videos, but the song itself is able to stand on its own as well. The production has an elegance and gracefulness to it thanks to a gorgeous piano (especially the intro that seizes on listeners) and string stabs that blossom into orchestral backings, imbuing the song with an almost classical nature but not resorting to sampling a piece itself. Complementing that well are ARTMS’ airy vocals (perhaps too much at times during the chorus) that complete a rather appropriate otherworldly experience. Yet there’s also more dramatic and darker underpinnings behind the snares, beats, and orchestration that help “Icarus” send a purposeful mixed message. The production is inarguably busy, though due to it being balanced well, and the mix ultimately results in a cohesive effort that’s more elaborate and fancy than annoying and gimmicky.
One potential weakness here is the lack of a pop chorus with a refrain and/or hook that really would bring a mainstream appeal to this. However, the choice to instead emphasize the lyrical themes of identity, rebirth, and include a sense of longing through holding notes on “hurricane”, “away”, “spread”, “fly” make the most sense artistically. Additionally, the chorus entertains a quite-popular vibe of throwing caution into the wind anyway, like launching off a building to fly or something of that sort, and it holds up well on repeats. The chanting section during the bridge of “we fly high, the world awakening us, reborn like a phoenix wing” only reinforces these choices and provides a memorable refrain, and the “la la las” are a nice nod to sister group tripleS and when used sparingly are still an effective way to add a little notable flair to the end of a melody.
As mentioned, all of this plays up thanks to the expertly shot and edited music video that mostly consists of a dance solo, except by all the members switching throughout. I’ll be taking a look at the cinematic music video later for further detail about this release, but even as a standalone, this “Club Version” of “Icarus” leaves a striking impression and helps bring out the song’s best.
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So sure, while you likely have to be in a certain mood to put “Icarus” on instead of it being a ubiquitous mainstream pop hit, that doesn’t make it any less effective or enjoyable to listen to. Most importantly, it kinda snaps me out of a personal K-pop lull where I was feeling like the ability of the industry to produce attention-grabbing try-hard (compliment) media was seriously waning in a relentless pursuit of increasingly generic Western Top 40 mid-ness, and it’s pretty hard to put a value on something like making you feel something about a “genre” again.
English (US) · 