Stray Kids “The Sound” Album Review

THE SOUND

Stray Kids

• Genre: K-Pop
• Date: 22 Feb, 2023
• Content: Not-explicit
• Region: NGA
• Track(s): 10
• ℗ 2021(8,9),2022(6),2023(1-5,7,10) Sony Music Labels Inc.

Stray Kids have released another new project targeted at the Japanese market following releasing two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in the previous ten months.

The Sound, Stray Kids’ first original Japanese full-length album, was released on 21 Feb in the morning (22 Feb local time in Japan). The 10-track album comes after the boy band’s two prior EPs, Circus from 2022 and All In from 2020, which were packaged for Japan. However, the majority of the music on The Sound is original, unlike their past EPs, which had at least half of their K-pop content that had been remixed.

Several singles, including “Scars,” “Thunderous (Japanese Version),” “Case 143 (Japanese Version),” the raucous title track “The Sound,” the rhythmic ballad “There,” and “Case 143 (Japanese Version),” previewed the LP before the whole album was released.

Album Art

 

The Album art brilliantly features cropped images of talented instrumentalists coming together to create pleasing listening tunes depicted by the waves that are shown in the middle. This goes a long way in starting a case for the Boy Band, as they tend to show that their diversity makes them as unique as possible and is responsible for their general creativity and excellence. The eight slides making up the collage also help to strengthen this deduction.

Tracks And Features

There are ten tracks in total on The Sound. The Ten-track listening journey opens with the title tune, “The Sound,” which introduces the album and captures the band’s assurance and attitude toward their music. Six of the album’s songs are original Japanese compositions, and the remaining four tracks are translations of earlier Japanese releases: “Case 143” and “Chill” from the EP Maxident (2022), “Scars” and “Thunderous” in Japanese. The FC limited edition also includes the title track’s instrumental rendition.
Most of the songs on the album were written and produced by 3Racha, an internal production team comprised of Stray Kids’ Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han. In addition, Hyunjin and Seungmin, also members, contributed to the writing of “DLMLU” and “Novel,” respectively. “Battle Ground” demonstrates “their zeal and resolve to endure in the world of music.”

The “heartrending” ballad “Lost Me” is about being alone without a loved one. It is the third track, and The song is quite depressing and talks about how we lose ourselves in trying to win the love of others around us.

The acronym “DLMLU” stands for “Don’t Let Me Love You,” and it conveys the emotion of “breaking up,” while the imagination of “sweet love in a novel or play” and “the experience of falling in love” are both depicted in “Novel.” Seungmin wrote the song in 2020. He sent this song in response to a request for a music demo that would be released in Japan, and it was chosen.

“There” is a heartbreaking song on the album’s concluding track about love’s demise. According to the band’s members, it is the second verse of the song “Your Eyes” from their prior EP, Circus (2022). It was released in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, along with several images of each member. The track’s opening lyrics, “Starry night, looking up alone, We were proud of ourselves when we found a star,” “Today, the sky is different from those days; it seems to be telling the story of who I am now. A cold and lonely wind blows, And the sea slowly loses its color. Still, these blue memories won’t be washed away, Even by the largest waves” this makes the song’s theme evident from the onset and takes you through the emotions until it brings the listener to an emotional ending.

Tracklist

NO	TITLE	TIME
1	THE SOUND	3:00
2	Battle Ground	3:33
3	Lost Me	3:09
4	DLMLU	3:14
5	Novel	3:08
6	CASE 143 -Japanese version-	3:13
7	CHILL -Japanese version-	3:18
8	Scars	3:19
9	Thunderous -Japanese version-	3:04
10	There	3:35

Album Summary

Issues of Love and its related antecedents are mentioned on the tracks. The listener is taken through a real-life emotional journey as the Boy Band delivers effortlessly and melodically creatively. Aside from 3Racha, Zack Djurich, Kyle Reynolds, Frants, Versachoi, Nickko Young, Raphael, Daviid, Yosia, HotSauce, and Jun2 contributed to the album’s Production.

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