Bite Review: NCT Wish Keep Making Magic in “I Spy”

Once upon a time, NCT Wish were an idea met with skepticism, if not hostility. In the lead up to six-member group’s 2024 debut, there were questions about why NCT needed a final unit, whether SM was overloading themselves with young boy groups, and what exactly NCT Wish could bring to NCT, their company, and K-pop as a whole. These days, those doubts feel like a distant hallucination. NCT Wish have emerged as one of the fifth generation’s strongest success stories. A lot of credit goes to their consistent concept — unabashedly cute, upbeat, and cheeky — which sets them apart from their peers. There’s also their visual style, which is delightfully playful and unafraid of big swings. But what gets mentioned less frequently is their ongoing, generational run of quality bubblegum pop songs. Bubblegum pop is a tough genre to call home (and not only because it’s frequently derided in the way things gendered as ‘girly’ tend to be). It’s really hard to make one good bubblegum pop song, much less a string of them. Earworm hooks easily become one-note nuisances, familiar pop song structures invite mediocrity, and upbeat energy too often curdles into something sickly sweet. But with big risks...