Maps of Music

HARD (2023)

Where the lyrics of HARD take you, and where it was really made.

It is the first album since youngest member Taemin finished military service, and the group chose the hip hop track "Hard" as lead single over the agency's pick "Juice" because it would be a "new experience".

Key places

Recording location: Doobdoob, Seoul (2023)

Recording site Big Hit Studios, Seoul — Listed as the recording location for this album. The pin is at city-center level, not at the exact building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Private company studio, not open to visitors.

Album story

Overview

• Hard: eighth Korean-language studio album by South Korean boy band SHINee
• Released 26 June 2023 through SM Entertainment
• Ten songs of various genres, including lead single "Hard"
• First album since youngest member Taemin completed his military service
• Marks the group's 15th anniversary
• Described as the start of a "new chapter" for the group
• Commercially successful, peaking at number two on South Korea's Circle Album Chart

Background

• Taemin enlisted in May 2021, several months after the seventh studio album Don't Call Me
• Onew, Key and Minho focused on solo activities while waiting for his return
• January 2023 reports said an eighth album was planned for May, timed to the 15th anniversary
• An SM Entertainment earnings report corroborated the plan the following month
• Taemin was discharged from the military on 4 April 2023 and resumed idol activities
• The album was delayed from its originally scheduled May release
• In an interview with Clash, Taemin expressed regret that they had limited time to prepare
• Onew said the album marked the beginning of a "new chapter"
• The agency said the album would contain genres the group had not explored before

Recording

• Key confirmed that the group had begun recording
• The group chose "Hard" over the agency's pick "Juice" for lead single, feeling it would be a "new experience"
• They expressed a desire to constantly seek a new identity and keep evolving

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Shinee is a South Korean boy band formed by SM Entertainment in 2008.
• The Korean name is a coined word combining "shine" with the suffix "ee", meaning "one who receives the light".
• The group debuted in May 2008 with the EP Replay.

Members

• The group currently consists of four members: Onew, Key, Minho, and Taemin.
• The group was originally a five-member band; Jonghyun died on December 18, 2017.

Career

• Shinee's signature style is contemporary R&B, incorporating funk rock, hip hop, and EDM.
• Their 2008 album The Shinee World won Newcomer Album of the Year at the 23rd Golden Disc Awards.
• "Ring Ding Dong" topped several Korean charts and gained popularity across Asia.
• Sherlock (2012) became the fifth best-selling album of the year in South Korea with over 180,000 copies sold.
• Shinee debuted in Japan in 2011 and became the first Asian artists to perform at Abbey Road Studios in London.
• They are regarded as one of the best live vocal groups in K-pop and have won the Mnet Asian Music Awards Best Dance Performance Award three times.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• IZE critic Lee Deok-haeng said SHINee kept challenging themselves with new genres while still maintaining their core identity
• Lee viewed it as consistent with the group's history of musical experimentation
• Kim Young-dae wrote that it felt like a greatest hits album despite being composed of entirely new songs, describing it as very "Shinee-like"
• Kim regarded it as the "highest level album that a K-pop boy group can present"
• i-D's Grant Rindner said the album's "joyful organized chaos" delivered "a sense of both poignance and catharsis"
• Rindner stated that the album showed SHINee continued to push boundaries despite the adversity they had endured
• NME critic Rhian Daly described the album as "perfectly pleasant" but felt it did not live up to the standards set by their previous work
• Daly deemed "Insomnia" and "Gravity" the most sonically interesting moments
• Daly praised the overall quality of the lyrics and singled out "Identity" for its "impactful message"

Records

• Commercially successful, peaking at number two on South Korea's Circle Album Chart
• Received largely positive reviews from music critics

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album came in 12 different physical versions: Play/Package, three photobooks, four digipaks and four SMini sets.
• The Play version was packaged in an embossed hard cardboard box with magnetic closure and included a playable board game.
• A billboard appeared in Seoul on 21 May 2023 proclaiming that SHINee would return in June.
• The album was originally planned for a May release but was delayed.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · www.discogs.com

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