Sechs Kies’ first studio album since 1999 may have been enough to satisfy longtime fans’ thirst for its music, but it falls short of showing the maturity that the group could have been expected to develop during its 20-year hiatus.

The five-member group released “Another Light” on Thursday, its first full-length album since reunion last year.

“It really feels like we are debuting again,” said leader Eun Ji-won, in a press conference held in Seoul on Thursday.

“It feels like we’re starting again with our fans,” said main vocalist Kang Sung-hoon.

The nine-track album has double lead track of “Something Special” and “Smile,” which the members said showed both the sentimental and cheery sides of the band.

Sechs Kies poses for a photo prior to a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. (YG Entertainment)

Sechs Kies poses for a photo prior to a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. (YG Entertainment)

“Something Special” is a rhythmic number with a bouncy reggae-like beat, while “Smile” is a standard ballad track. Most tracks are cheery mid-tempo songs that are easy to follow.

Kim Jae-duck said the band wanted to produce songs that can appeal to the public, rather than the acrobatic dance performances and fast-paced techno beat that it was known for in the 1990s.

One of the most notable improvement is in the overall singing ability, which was expected given the changes in K-pop in the past 20 years.

It was customary among the first-generation idol singers to just have one good singer, and have the rest of the members rap -- or do their own interpretation of what was supposed to be rap. It was also acceptable for K-pop acts to lip-synch most of their performances.

But on “Another Light” all five members demonstrate at least passable singing skills. Their improvement is most apparent when leader Eun -- who had kicked off a career as a hip-hop artist in his post-boy band days -- sings the chorus of “Smile.”

But the new album fails to reflect much musical development from the members, more than two decades after they debuted. None of the songs or words were written by the members, apart from a joint credit to Eun for the lyrics to Backhug.

The album had fingerprints of YG’s in-house producers and regular members of the song-writing team like Kang Wook-jin, Lion and Future Bounce all over it, which may be why it almost feels like a standard YG album.

It appears that Sechs Kies took a back seat in creating its own album.

“(YG head) Yang Hyun-suk told us to trust and follow him, and we said ‘Yes, sir.’ Which is how we selected our title tracks,” said Kang.

“It took a long time for us to work on (our) chemistry with the producers. It was hard to reflect each members’ opinions, so the producers focused on making Sechs Kies’ style,” said Eun, who did not show any hint of his successful hip-hop career anywhere on the album.

He expressed hope that the next album would be different.

“If we work on such chemistry with activities for the fifth album, maybe we will be able to come up with ‘our own answer’ with our next album,” he said.

“Another Light” will be released at 6 p.m. Thursday.

In celebration of the album. Sechs Kies will hold a concert at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Saturday.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)








Sechs Kies poses for a photo prior to a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. (YG Entertainment)

Sechs Kies during a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. (YG Entertainment)




By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)