A “Beautiful Life” and a Beautiful Mind with Xdinary Heroes’ Latest Mini-Album
Xdinary Heroes continue to dominate the new era of K-rock-pop with the release of their sixth mini-album, Beautiful Mind. Through seven new tracks: "FIGHT ME," "Beautiful Life," "more than i like," "Diamond," "Supernatural," "George the Lobster," and "BBB (Bitter But Better)," Xdinary Heroes further cement their position as one of the best bands in town.
Xdinary Heroes channel their inner Queen with their title track “Beautiful Life.” This song plays like a modern-day “Bohemian Rhapsody” with its rock-opera and progressive rock sound that also displays notes of My Chemical Romance and Panic at the Disco. Creating a song in the rock-opera genre was a bold move for Xdinary Heroes but one that certainly paid off as "Beautiful Life" is arguably one of their best title tracks. At four minutes and 25 seconds, "Beautiful Life" stands as the longest song written and recorded by the band so far, consisting of many wonderful and surprising elements within its arrangement, from tempo changes to meticulous and complex instrumental choices. Each listen brings something new to the ears, with "Beautiful Life" feeling experimental but also true to Xdinary Heroes at its core.
Jooyeon opens "Beautiful Life" with the line "no ones here to find you," before intricate guitar riffs and a headbanging drum beat take the song into a place of nostalgic hard rock, combining old-school anthemic rock with sprinkles of modernity. As with any Xdinary Heroes track, the vocals and instrumental performance exceed expectations, with "Beautiful Life" pushing Xdinary Heroes to an even greater level of musical excellence as the song (and the entire Beautiful Mind mini-album) highlights the band’s versatility and consistent artistic growth on a deeper scale.
The music video for "Beautiful Life" plays like a cinematic piece of art, drawing references to George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984; a cautionary tale that explores themes of control, power, and the restriction of freedom. In our recent interview with Xdinary Heroes, Gun-il and Jungsu revealed the word 'resistance' to play a major role in the album's concept with each song reflecting this word in the band's own way. The music video for "Beautiful Life" projects this message and theme through its iconography and cinematography that depicts resistance and rebellion, showing Xdinary Heroes to fight back against those trying to control them.
The lyrics also draw upon 1984 with the quote 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength' cleverly used as the song's pre-chorus. Like the song, the music video also displays elements of Brit-rock and Brit-pop, through the members' outfits and also through some of the locations and buildings where we can see English writing sprayed on the walls via graffiti tags. The music video is so skillfully detailed and well-crafted that it makes the viewer want to watch it several times in order to fully take in and appreciate all of the intricate visuals and messages it's sending out.
All of the tracks across Beautiful Mind exhibit intense emotion, with each song channeling a sound that is more mature and heavier than some of Xdinary Heroes past releases. This isn't me calling Xdinary Heroes's other tracks immature as they definitely are not, but there's something different about the songs in this mini-album that show a deep artistic growth, with the tracks getting better and better with each new release, and setting a high but exciting bar for the ones to follow.
"FIGHT ME" excellently sets the tone for Beautiful Mind, opening the mini-album with a high energy that almost feels like it could a song from a League of Legends soundtrack, while the endearing and emotional "more than i like" takes me back to the rock music of my youth.
The fourth track "Diamond" instantly became my favorite song on the mini-album. Sung entirely in English, “Diamond” combines heavy instrumental arrangements with sublime vocals (with Gaon's vocals in the opening verse and Gunil's drumming being two standout moments for me) and an impressive vocal scream that gives me goosebumps every time I listen to the song. While title track "Beautiful Life" carries Brit-rock influences, "Diamond" takes an American rock approach, again showcasing Xdinary Heroes's inspiring musical versatility, with a chorus that makes me feel some type of emotion as they sing “You didn’t know that I’m a diamond / I got proof in my eyes.” "Supernatural," on the other hand, joins Xdinary Heroes's beautiful list of emotional rock-ballads with heavenly vocals and soft melodic tones that will have you deep in your feels, even before reading and understanding the lyrics.
Who knew a song about a 140 year old lobster could be so good? Well, clearly Xdinary Heroes did as the fifth track "George the Lobster" is one of the best songs on the album. This song fuses together elements of rock, pop, funk, and rap to create this incredible piece of music that floats in and out of these different genres through tempo changes and stylistic choices. Not to mention, the incredible guitar solo that takes centre stage towards the end of the track, giving Villains everything they could wish for, and more, from the band. "BBB (Bitter But Better)" closes Beautiful Mind by perfectly ending the mini-album on an exquisite high with its anthemic nature that I can already hear Villains voices filling out venues with as they chant along to the chorus during Lollapalooza and Xdinary Heroes’ upcoming world tour; a tour that will see Xdinary Heroes play in seven major cities across the U.S. this August*, following several stops across Asia in May, where the band will play in Seoul, Bangkok, Singapore, and more before heading stateside.
Every track on Beautiful Mind is a credit to Xdinary Heroes’s craftsmanship and talent. The level of creativity and production that goes into each song is incredible and so deserving of endless recognition and support. So, go and listen to Beautiful Mind today and step inside Xdinary Heroes’s world of musical excellence with this no-skip mini-album. It's not one to be missed!
*General on-sale for the 2025 World Tour begins Tuesday, April 1 at 3pm local time on LiveNation.com
Edited by Lacey Diluvio