Visionary artist and former member of Loona, Yves, brought her name back into the limelight by releasing her fourth album “NAIL” on April 17, 2026.

Her past few EPs have been very average to put it nicely but will “NAIL” continue this pattern? Unfortunately, yes. 

The project opens with “It” which feels like the spiritual successor to “Ex Machina”, the track that opened Yves’ last album. 

“It” is just breathtaking, this song is so beautiful. The combination of the vocal effect, the synths and the strings used in the outro create this fascinating mixture of old and new sounds.

The atmosphere is simply ethereal and Yves’ delicate vocals compliment this song incredibly.

Where “It” is very interesting, “HALO” is the peak of nothingness, this song is terrible.

It’s four minutes long of a boring house beat and Yves repeating the same Korean word over and over.

There is a transition into the next song at the end and that’s nice while listening to this album as a whole but overall this song is just unlistenable.

Had this song been a one minute long ‘interlude’ or ‘intro’ style track it would have worked much better but in its current state it’s a doodoo clown mess. 

Luckily “NAIL (feat. Lolo Zouaï)” is far better than the track preceding it. 

“NAIL (feat. Lolo Zouaï)” is dark, it continues the ethereal vibe that “It” starts, and the anti-drop chorus is so interesting. This song is very reminiscent of the late and great SOPHIE’s earlier works in the way that the beat is an amalgamation of synthetic and organic sounds blended to form a sound that doesn’t sound like anything anyone has ever heard.

Yves has been using heavy vocal effects since the “I Did” era and this song perhaps uses them to the greatest effect. Compared to “Viola” and “White cat”,  “NAIL (feat. Lolo Zouaï)” uses the heavy distortion and auto-tuning to create a very specific atmosphere where Yves’ vocals become bubbly rather than just being a little sprinkling of seasoning on the song.

The featuring artist’s verse is the highlight of the song, showcasing her incredible music writing skills and vocal techniques. Yves

Break it (feat. Lexie Liu) is not terrible, but it is somewhat of a letdown. 

With Lexie Liu being the mastermind behind one of the best pop albums of the current era and Yves being unafraid to experiment with her music I was expecting this song to be incredible. 

Unfortunately, it’s just okay. 

There really isn’t anything to pick at for being wrong with the track, it’s just not very interesting. I like the general vibe of the song and the fact that these two collaborated but it’s just meh. 

Closing the EP is “birth” which carries a similar vibe to the first track of the album. However, “birth” is much more electronic in its production. There’s lots of vocal chopping and synths that make you feel like you’re walking around in a computer.

This song kind of feels like a slightly more upbeat version of Oklou’s “choke enough” with more focus on the vocals of the song.

Similar to “Break it (feat. Lexie Liu) there really isn’t much to pick at. It’s quite simple but in this case its simplicity actually works in its favor.

Overall: 5.5/10

Yves tends to have this problem in all of her projects where the title tracks and one or two other songs tend to be incredible and the rest of the tracks feel like an afterthought. “NAIL” does a better job with this but it’s still a bit of a problem.

“NAIL” is a solid EP.  The highs of this project are exceptionally high, while the lows make you want to fall asleep.  For Yves moving forward a track that better highlights