Struggling girl group, Nine Muses, will be back on January 24th with the release of their second mini-album. It'll be the first time we've heard anything new from the muses since "Ticket," which was released way back in early March of last year. It'll also be the first time that the group has promoted with nine members since their 2011 flop "Ladies," finally putting an end to the awkwardness of being a group called the Nine Muses with only seven or eight members. With the lineup now complete and the group's longtime producer, Sweetune, back on board, their agency is promising that their comeback will be their best yet.

“The luxuriant and sexy atmosphere of the song is a level above anything you’ve heard before,” teased a rep for the group's agency. “Hand-in-hand with the unique song, we are preparing an out-of-this-world stage.”

A bona fide breakout is long overdue for the Nine Muses, who have walked a rocky road since debuting back in 2010 with the controversial, "No Playboy." They started out as the butt of many K-pop fans' jokes and incurred the wrath of angry SONES, who were none to pleased to see another nine member girl group on the scene. The poor muses' luck finally turned around in 2011 when they teamed up with Sweetune (the hitmaker behind megstars KARA and INFINITE) and returned as a septet with the catchy disco single, "Figaro." Six months later they were back with another new member and a fresh single, "News," which became their first top forty entry and their biggest success to date. They kept the momentum going with a second consecutive top forty hit, "Ticket," and even managed to reach the top ten of the official albums chart with their first EP, Sweet Rendezvous.

Although their chart success still leaves a lot to be desired, they've become much more visible on the K-pop scene over the past two years, and have built up a strong fan following thanks to their powerful performances and surprisingly fantastic Sweetune-helmed songs, which are easily good enough to rival the hits Sweetune's produced for much bigger stars. Everything seems to be in place for Nine Muses' next comeback to be their breakthrough, so hopefully 2013 will be their year.