It is time for another album review. And it is also time for a new artist in this segment. For the very first time, I am reviewing an album for Weki Meki. Their albums thus far haven’t really caught my attention and hence I have been passing on the opportunity to review their albums. This time around, Weki Meki caught my attention with their latest title track, COOL, and I was very intrigued to see what the group had prepared for us in New Rules. While it was everything I did not expect from the group, Weki Meki still manages to show off some of their skills throughout the album so I just had to put on the reviewing list. The album features 3 other new tracks, not including the title track and the English version of the same track (which I have not included in this review).

1. COOL (Title Track) – Click here to read the full review for COOL. (9/10)

2. Sweet Dreams – There are a few elements within Sweet Dreams that draws my attention. First of all, the innocent and playful vibe that the song brings feels quite nice and unique. The instrumental almost feels like a music box without incorporating any music box style samples. At other times, Sweet Dreams seems fitting for a fantastical concept. One thing that I observed/noted throughout the song was each part seemed to differ slightly from one another. But yet, the song cohesively comes together (apart from that vocal bit in the second verse which started off with the ‘Hush little baby’ – that was probably the most ill-fitting sequence in the entire song). It is interesting concept musically and works really well. I also liked the lightness that the vocals and rapping ended up bringing. (9/10)

3. D-DAY – D-DAY is a surprising song. Based on the title of the song, I would have expected something bombastic and intense, potentially bringing more of COOL’s vibe to the album or possibly even returning the group’s girl crush sound that they visited in Crush. But D-DAY ends up being a light pop track. It showcases a good amount of the group’s vocals and I also liked the lightness that the song brings. However, the song is quite ‘overly consistent’ and doesn’t deviate much from its guitar centric instrumentation. If they somehow changed up the song whilst maintaining the lightness, D-DAY would not be as boring by the time it reached its 2:49 mark. (7.5/10)

4. Just Us – Just Us is the final ‘new’ song on the album (quotation marks around the word ‘new’ because the next track is the English Version of COOL – but I already reviewed the Korean version above). Just Us is the album’s mandatory ballad. Once again, the song showcases their vocals really nicely and sweetly. I did like the song’s brighter tone and I felt the melodies were a bit more captivating than D-DAY’s. I really liked the high note during the bridge and that echo following it was also a nice touch. What makes this song even better than the preceding was the ‘La La La’ part that followed the final chorus, which adds something slightly different to the song but maintains the song’s sweet atmosphere without changing the dynamics of the song. (8/10)

Overall Album Rating – 8.4/10