It was never the songs; it was the execution. I actually like Gnarly, Internet Girl, and Pinky Up, and I wouldn’t even mind if Katseye put Juice on their upcoming album. For me, the issue has never been the group itself, but the people behind them who don't seem to understand what they’re doing. If the HxG team actually knew how to execute a concept for a group with this much potential, the entire direction would look different. When I saw the gnarly mv teasers, my head went somewhere completely different. With Manon’s bob, the party scenes, and Sophia falling, they looked like they were in an action movie.
They should have leaned into that high-fashion, y2k Hollywood action film with bold primary colors. They could have given us Kill Bill energy: serious, cinematic, and cunt but still feels campy. If you want to say a Tesla is "gnarly," have a Cybertruck exploding in flames. Have them shooting people with boba tea while looking dead serious. That’s how you do camp. Instead, HxG went for "meme brainrot" satire with sandwiches and flies fucking. it just felt like they didn't know how to handle the scale of the idea.
That action-film concept could have easily transitioned into the Gabriela era, where the telenovela and reality TV tropes would have felt cohesive and intentional. Instead, the visual execution feels disjointed.
Take the Gameboy MV; why was it just a performance dance video? When Lara was injured, she was acting as if she was controlling them which is cute… BUT, they could have added a bit of 3D animation of the girls together in a literal game world or shot scenes without the constant dancing to build the atmosphere.
Then there’s Mean Girls. why are we still bringing up Dream Academy? None of these girls want to be reminded of that stress, and the fans have moved on too (some of us…). HxG needs to stop reminding us how the group was formed and start showing us who they are now. They could have just shot them living their daily lives or cinematic dance practices; it’s not that hard to make that look high-end. That’s where the song MIA would have felt like a perfect conclusion, with visuals of them just having fun on the road which we got.
Even with Internet Girl and Pinky Up, the creative team just seems lost. If there is a music video for it. Internet Girl could have been a masterpiece if they’d styled them in those "Season’s Greetings" kinda style of outfits (the colors one) and shot them in a house with those retro computers to nail the theme for the music video.
Then we got Pinky Up which left me completely flabber-gasted because it was so literal; just because the lyrics mention the Mona Lisa doesn’t mean you have to put the artwork in the video. It felt lazy, like Megan getting one quick scene with a fountain and some swan before moving on. The video had so many sets, yet it felt like everything was filmed in two seconds without any depth.
HXG keeps mistaking busyness for vision. They throw things at the wall. references, aesthetics, concepts without committing to any of it long enough for it to land. Katseye clearly has the range. The girls can carry a concept. But you have to actually give them one.
I’m only ranting because I want them to have a vision that actually matches their talent. I’m not going to the snark subs to rant because those people just want to see them fail, but HxG seriously needs to step up the creative direction.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.