(Cube Entertainment)

After a little reshuffle last year, Pentagon is back as a nine-piece act with a new mini-album titled “Genie:us.”

The new album comes nearly six months after “Thumbs Up!” -- the last record with former member E’Dawn, who parted ways with Cube Entertainment in November after going public with his relationship with fellow singer HyunA.

The record goes on sale Wednesday night and the group held a showcase event in Seoul earlier the same day.

During the event, Jinho said, “We’ve had a lot of time so we ended up getting involved in the making of the album from the beginning to the end, from the concept for each photo shoot to a draft of a music video script, not to mention self-composed songs.”

(Cube Entertainment)

Their eighth mini-album is packed with six tracks including title track “Sha La La,” written by bandmate Hui after six attempts to write a song that met the group’s standards.

Hui said he finds it a “little scary” to let the bandmates listen to his songs for the first time. But they “unanimously” agreed on “Sha La La” as the title track soon after they heard it.

The lead single takes the form of an upbeat future house dance tune. With witty, straightforward lyrics and a tightly choreographed performance, the members of Pentagon are hoping to prove they made the right call.

The group also wanted to make more honest songs for the new album, Shinwon said.

“Since we wanted to record songs that are honest, we decided on a topic before we began the recording process. We had about 20 songs but then we carefully made our picks with a storyline. Just one topic runs through the album.”

But Kino broke some bad news: He hurt his leg while practicing and wouldn’t be able to join the group onstage during promotions for the new album.

Having watched the showcase performance from backstage, he said, “I don’t get to watch Pentagon from offstage often. Watching them (onstage) makes me feel so appreciative and I just think (Pentagon) is really cool.” To that, Hui responded, “You’re Pentagon, too.”

The title of the new album -- coined from “genie” and “us” -- conveys the positive message that we are all geniuses.

By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)