izna’s “Not Just Pretty”: Beyond Visuals
Photo: WakeOne Entertainment
Rounding out an inaugural year, WakeOne Entertainment’s rookie girl group izna returns with Not Just Pretty, a five-track EP that journeys from retro-inspired synth-pop to the brash “Mamma Mia.” Pairing minimal dance instrumentals with chanted vocals, izna sets out to break the boundaries of their own individuality.
The challenge with Not Just Pretty is that izna posits their own individualism against their visuals – setting out to prove that the sum of their artistry is more than aesthetics. However, this bold declaration struggles to fall anything but flat when held up against “Mamma Mia’s” minimal, lackluster chorus and choppy structuring. The real substance of the EP is in the B-sides: “Supercrush” and “In the Rain” carry more musical intrigue and flair than their titular counterpart.
Tracklist:
“Supercrush”
“Mamma Mia”
“Racecar”
“In the Rain”
“SIGN (Remix)”
“Mamma Mia”
In an attempt to continue the K-Pop industry's renaissance of experimental choices against the familiar recurring backdrop of pop-rock and fresh concepts, “Mamma Mia” is an EDM synth-pop track that pairs a minimal beat with a repetitive chanted “Oh My Mamma Mia.”
In portions, the song carries its own musical intrigue: the pre-chorus pushes the song aggressively, the music video visuals are over-the-top with CGI and sparkles in every nook and cranny, and the performance is loaded with punchy moves and captivating expressions. Overall, however, the musicality falls flat. The chorus does not live up to its own anticipation, with instrumental too minimal to match izna’s forthright and more than capable vocals.
Clocking in at 2 minutes and 39 seconds, there is simply not enough time to build up any intrigue that the song may have otherwise had the potential to play with. “Mamma Mia” never brings the energy or individualism that the concept demands. While the mixing, arrangement, visuals, performances, talent, and choreography of the production deliver the experimental quirkiness a concept like Not Just Pretty should imply, the music itself undermines its own point. This is a shame – in an industry burdened by its own pursuit of perfection, pushing for a more profound sense of identity, beyond the boundaries of “pretty” is a novel pursuit, a noble one even, especially for a girl group only in their eleventh month.
“Mamma Mia” stands out – but for all the wrong reasons, a halfhearted attempt to scream individualism against nothing but a bassline that is, for some reason, trying to retreat to the shadows. It’s certainly not pretty, but it’s not much else either.
B-Sides
The charm of Not Just Pretty, while dulled by “Mamma Mia” persists through its three B-sides: “Supercrush,” “Racecar,” and “In the Rain.” Single “SIGN,” released in March 2025, also makes a remixed reappearance as a closer. “Supercrush,” a retro synthwave track of an opener, delivers the sonic complexity its counterpart lacks. The members’ soaring vocals dance across in layered harmony, until a power-driven bridge and cleverly interpolated outro send it all home. The members' vocal charms shine in “Supercrush” and the synth-pop success that defined Not Just Pretty’s predecessor (and counterpart) “SIGN” return again in “Supercrush.”
“Racecar” features distorted vocals over a repetitive melody, gunning forward to a pedal-to-the-metal drop. It’s the build you would expect in “Mamma Mia,” using minimized instrumentals to layer into a drop that actually pulls itself off. While the bridge stutters the song in its own momentum, its a haunting take on a racing concept.
Atmospheric and etherial, funky and retro, “In the Rain” offers a laid-back exit-music-esque track. The instrumentals compel, with artful lyrics to match, “The red sun at dawn,” and, “When the blue air turns purple.” The saxophone outro takes the song home in what is by far the most musically cohesive track on Not Just Pretty.
Perhaps Not Just Pretty takes the wrong route to its intended destination: a wholeheartedly lackluster title track belies stellar B-sides. In this sense, yes, izna is “not just pretty,” hiding what are great tracks behind something that has all the performance and all the visuals, yet lacks the musical substance to stand on its own concept.
TITLE TRACK SCORE: 4/10
“Mamma Mia” MUSIC VIDEO SCORE: 8/10
Not Just Pretty EP SCORE: 6.5/10
TOTAL: 6.2/10
Edited by Cara Musashi