NU'EST returns with new album 'CANVAS'

Pledis Entertainment's boy band NU'EST performs "Love Paint" at YES24 LiveHall in Gwangjin-gu, eastern
Seoul, Monday. From left, Ren, Aron, Minhyun, Baekho and JR perform. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Pledis Entertainment's boy band NU'EST released their new mini-album "Canvas" on Monday.

The band's fifth EP contains five tracks including lead single "Love Paint" and "Daybreak," "R.L.T.L," "Thank You" and "Look."

"The new album has been made on the concept of 24 hours in a day," said member Baekho during a press conference at YES24 LiveHall in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul. "The album represents our strong music style as we all participated in producing the tunes and writing lyrics."

His bandmate JR said the songs are arranged in a timely order so he suggests people listen to the songs in order throughout the day.

The first track "Daybreak" is soul R&B music of medium tempo mixed with a jazz groove. The music gives both sad and hopeful feelings at the same time.

"The first track, Daybreak, is good to listen to at dawn," said JR. "It is my duet with Minhyun and we wrote the lyrics at daybreak. The second track R.L.T.L. is a morning song. From the intro, the song plays like a bird's chirpings which reminds the listener of morning time."

The lead single "Love Pain" harmonizes a future bass sound and R&B with a classical orchestra sound. The song is written by popular songwriters Mafly and BUMZU who have worked with K-pop stars like Girls Generation, TVXQ, Kara and Taeyeon.

"Love Paint is our first single and it is best to listen to in the afternoon," said Minhyun. "The fourth track Thank You delivers our gratitude to the fans and the last song Look has a fast tempo conveying a lively and active feeling of the night."

The boy band debuted in 2012 under the name of NU'EST, an acronym for New Established Style Tempo, consisting of five members JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun and Ren. Before their debut, they were active as backup dancers on After School Blue's "Wonder Boy."

After the release of their first single "Face" in March 2012, they made their stage debut on cable TV Mnet's "M Countdown." Pledis Entertainment promoted the K-pop group that year through the TV reality show "Making of a Star: NU'EST Landing Operation," and the group introduced their first mini-album "Action" on July 11.

Over the next four years, NU'EST released four more EPs and expanded their activities overseas along with their debut in Japan. The group has also participated in global K-pop events in Australia, America and Asia through CJ E&M's global music festival KCON.

"Through this album, we want to become a team with strong bondage, like BigBang," said Baekho.

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