Cross Gene is finally back with its new game plan. The boy band unveiled its new mini album at a comeback showcase Wednesday.

Titled “GAME,” the album is a metaphor for love, a repetitive cycle of meeting and breaking up to finding true love. It includes six tracks, of which Cross Gene performed the lead track “Noona, You” and the 2nd track “My Face” at the showcase.

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The title “Noona, You” is an energetic song about wanting an older woman -- noona means older sister in Korean. This track combines various musical genres of rock, EDM, hip-hop and R&B, accentuating individual member’s charm. “My Face” depicts movie-like sophisticated love emotions with uplifting beats and addictive hook.

“There are many songs about noona these days, but no one previously has treated it as harshly as us. We call noona as ‘you’ directly, which is our different positioning from others,” Takuya said.

Casper added, “Some parts of the music video have a fairy-tale touch at the same time. The action of saving ‘noona’ seems to be a little clumsy and imperfect, but it gives off our fresh charm as toy boys.”

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Toward the end of the showcase, Cross Gene spoke of their aspiration for being recognized as a group through the new album.

The members had concentrated more on individual activities in the past. The leader Shin was busy acting, featuring in the Web drama “Secret Message” with Japanese actress Juri Ueno and Big Bang member Choi Seung-hyun. While Seyoung showed off his singing and acting talents through the musical “Bachelor’s Vegetable Store”. Takuya, probably the most well-known member of the group, appeared in the variety TV show “Non Summit” as the representative from Japan, and starred in his first Korean drama “The Lover”. Casper, the rapper of the group from China, also starred in the Taiwanese movie “17 years old.”

As a group itself, Cross Gene is relatively less shiny. Shin recalled a funny but sad episode for the group, saying, “Our members went to have galbitang for dinner one day. The owner of the restaurant greeted us with extra big portion of the food, so we were very happy. But he called us by a different boy group name at the end.”

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Casper mentioned that he wants the group to reach out more to the public, and expressed his strong willingness to grow as a singer via this new album in Korea. “I wish to become popular like other foreign K-pop stars such as Jackson from GOT7 and Henry from Super Junior,” he added.

Having debuted in 2012, Cross Gene is a multinational sextet under Amuse Korea, whose concept is that members from Korea, Japan and China all represent different colors of “genes”. Its most recent appearance on the K-pop scene was in April last year, with the 2nd album “Play With Me”. The group also made big hits with new singles “Love & Peace” and “Shi-tai!” recently in Japan, ranking second on Oricon’s weekly chart showing potential for global growth.

The 3rd new mini album by Cross Gene was released last midnight Jan. 21. How six different “genes” together play “GAME” is now ready.

By Lee Ja-hye (jahye@heraldcorp.com)

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