In July 2022, Mavin-signee Magixx released his second EP, ATOM, a 4-track follow up to his self-titled debut. In February of the same year, the remix to Love Don’t Cost A Dime from his first EP, featuring label mate Ayra Starr, immediately surged up the charts to become one of the year’s biggest records. As such, with ATOM, there was interest from new and old listeners alike, watching on for the next product from Mavin’s talent factory.
The EP lived up to the hype to an extent. ATOM housed another radio favourite in All Over, while also featuring Magixx taking on Afrobeat production on Weekenjoyment, and settling with his natural AfroR&B and Afropop roots on the latter 2 songs, Shaye and Forever. He had solidified his brand of doe-eyed loverboy music on I Dream In Colour, one of the best projects of 2025. And now, about a month shy of ATOM’s 4-year anniversary, Magixx returned with ATOM II.
This writer is intrigued about ATOM II for a few reasons. Magixx is an enigma in that he belongs to an older generation of B-list singers who are never really at the tip of every tongue, but can hold their own with a hit record every other year, and produce genuinely rewarding projects resonant with an audience a few individuals shy of being niche. There’s also the delight of seeing a project series in Afropop outside of hip-hop’s stables. The closest, genre-wise, would be Boj and Ajebutter’s Make E No Cause Fight EP series and Show Dem Camp’s Palmwine Music series. This year alone, Jeriq (HOOD BOY DREAMS) and Apex Village (Welcome 2 The Ville) have returned with follow-up tapes. The continued black-and-white visual motif—think A-Q’s God’s Engineering 1 and 2 LPs—is another appealing touch. It’s simultaneously difficult and easy knowing what to expect from this EP. But that’s the job, one supposes.
In typical one-listen fashion, there were no skips, rewinds, fast-forwards, or pauses. Certain reactions have been edited for appropriate language. All opinions expressed are those of the writer as parsed in real time.
Step aside Teni’s Power Ranger, there is a new Saban instalment in town. Magixx reminds us on the EP’s intro that this is the year of the melisma, right after a choral performance. Almost immediately, his penchant for puns and awkward writing comes to the fore (Hey Google, what is “You dey put power for my ranger?”). Production is minimalist: hard kicks, guitar licks and jazz horns combining for a cross between Dancehall and highlife. Power Ranger sounds like a regular, shmegular Magixx song until the beginning of the second verse, when he drops his voice to a commanding bass, calling for his lover to “shake am well-well.” For a brief moment in time, Oliver de Coque is reborn. The song concludes with a chop-and-screwed version of that “shake am well” section. And it’s no surprise when producer Ragee’s tag comes up at the end.
The transition to the next song on the EP is abrupt. But Magixx makes up for this with a Rave & Roses Rema-impression that’s almost better than Mr Divine Ikubor himself, spliced with Palm Wine music twang. Listen, when you can, to that “Faragon/Father’s son” scheme and shake your head in disbelief afterwards when the same songwriter talks about chuku-chuku in his villa. Recover almost immediately after as the bass guitar riffs hit your soul. On Feel Am, Magixx is playful in his wooing without coming off lazy, a balance he doesn’t always achieve on other songs.
Midway through ATOM II, we find Nonstop, back in AfroR&B territory. It’s also some of the more impressive writing so far, with a simple line like “Be like Edumare done tie our destiny 20-something years ago” conveying the depth of the professed longing. Magixx alters his delivery to match the emotions required at different points. A falsetto here. Lilt there. Gravelly cadence there. It’s rather unfortunate that Nonstop’s second verse is a masterclass in emotionless rhymes: Something like a principal. Another something like a criminal. Chopping spaghetti and whining like cassette-y. A song like this reminds you why ‘rate the pick-up line’ content is a thing. God help the children.
Having heard Juice & Liquor before the EP was released, this writer can only say that it holds the best and worst of the Lagos-born singer in equal measure. Poetic at its best, but headscratching at its vibe-driven crappiest. Nothing in this world, save for a Speed Darlington parody, justifies a “Gbongbolo Cigar/Aroma schnapps” scheme. It is a song that requires you to listen past Magixx’s primed vibrato, and to contrast his initial verse with FOLA’s. That is also why the song comes alive mainly in the latter stretch. For all it’s worth, Juice & Liquor should be a shoo-in for Best Collaboration at the next Headies—assuming that it holds, of course.
We close with yet another sharp transition. Ragee returns on Tonight, as does the choral effect from the first track. The BPM is a little faster than elsewhere on the EP, which would have been concerning if it wasn’t so synergistic with the synths and Magixx’s bouncy delivery. Thematically, Tonight closes like Forever on ATOM, a less solemn re-affirmation of love. Like its predecessor, Tonight proves an incomplete conclusion to ATOM II. It’s a love song promising a good night, an attempt to woo his lover (“Karishika, shooting my shot like I’m Clarence Peters”), espousing all the features he loves about her. But there’s little elegance. No panache. Void of the sophistication that elevates records such as All Over and Okay, which contain just as basic writing, but are elevated by production highs and moments to sing along to.
This disconnect is the central conceit of ATOM II. Magixx fails to bridge the gap between subject and observer, appearing to convince in moments, but only so. His exploration of different deliveries and ear for moments elevates Power Rangers and Juice & Liquor; the lack thereof burdens Nonstop and Tonight. And perhaps, confident in his ability to hold a note better than most, he doesn’t concentrate on embodying the loverboy through both verses of songs, instead maximising nasal melodies. The biggest compliment this writer could pay Magixx, in this regard, is that ATOM II sounds like a project you’d want to listen to at least 2 more times. The problem is that it also sounds like a project to let go after 3 listens.
Call it bias, but sometimes irregular highs can feel like an even worse sin than complacent mediocrity. An EP that’s simply a strip mine for playlist-ready gems isn’t worth applauding. And thematic coherence isn’t much of a win, either. The average artist can lace 10 tracks with writing about longing. It is the exceptional that makes you ache for unrequited love, even though you’re in the paragon of unions. Swap out lyrics on some of the songs on ATOM II with quiet and let the instrumentals play, and there’s every guarantee that you don’t feel a difference. If you still don’t get the point, listen to Magixx’s Winter & Summer and Bad Decisions & Foreplay, then try the same experiment. You will reckon with the disparity almost immediately.
ATOM II is symptomatic of late-stage Mavin Records EP derangement syndrome: EPs that come off as just another product on the label’s assembly line; ready-to-bump, ready-to-dump.
