[Review] FUEGO – THE NEW SIX (TNX)

THE NEW SIX smashed it with their last comeback (Kick It 4 Now), so I am excited to see what they are offering in their latest comeback that occurred on 20 March 2024. The new song is titled FUEGO and is the first comeback where THE NEW SIX has a full line-up in over a year, with Junhyeok returning from his hiatus.

THE NEW SIX trades out the retro that made Kick It 4 Now shine and opted for a more bombastic sound in FUEGO. While the former comeback was a hit out of the park, this new release isn’t. FUEGO falls into the more generic side of male group music nowadays. But it is not bad. The instrumental features a bass house sound that feels angsty and intense. The anti-drop actually hits hard in the chorus and makes for a bold central piece. Pity it is something else that weakens the chorus for me – more on that in a moment. The vocals in the verses were good. The melodic charm of the former comeback is definitely gone, but the vocals still manage to hold themselves well in FUEGO. I must give a commendation to Junhyeok and his vocals in the pre-choruses. His vocals delivery adds charisma and power of FUEGO. The rapping also feels brings an edgy dynamic to the song. I found the rappers’ delivery to be very clean and polished in FUEGO. There was a bit of shouty motif at times in FUEGO, but I felt they came in at the right times to drive up the song. Now, I did mention something earlier that weakens the chorus for me, and it is the one element that I haven’t mentioned yet – the hooks. While the instrumental in the chorus had club-banger potential, the hooks cancelled that out that potential. They felt boring, uneventful and dragged the energy that the instrumental was trying to get across to the audience. If I had one wish for FUEGO, it would be the members’ parts in the chorus were expanded (and not limited to 3 lines) and they are given some lively and exciting material to heighten the energy of the chorus and thus FUEGO.

Watching it a few times for the purposes of this review, I can see why I never really returned to the video following its release. There just wasn’t anything in the video that is memorable. Primarily set in a tunnel and on a wooden stage surrounded by doors, nothing really sparks in this video. We do get some additional backgrounds for the members’ closeups in the video. But nothing spectacular. For a song with the Spanish word for ‘fire’, there is also a lack of fires in this video. I am not expecting the place to be burning down (though there is a lot of precedent to that in KPOP music videos). But I expected a bit more flames than the few isolated CGI flames throughout the video.

The routine for FUEGO is one where the members kept on moving with little to no breaks in between each move. This drives up the intensity of the routine and kept the dynamism up high in the choreography. The dance routine also made sure the hooks didn’t get in the way of a good performance. There wasn’t a key moment to remember in this routine, but I liked the members’ style and charisma. Parts looked very sleek, especially the side way movements in the second verse and the forward movement that kicked off the second chorus.

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 5/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 7.3/10