Male solo artists to return to K-pop scene

Teaser images for singer Key's new full-length album, “Gasoline,” left, and for Kim Jae-hwan's upcoming mini-album, “Empty Dream” / Courtesy of SM Entertainment, Swing Entertainment

By Lee Gyu-lee

A string of male K-pop artists, like Key of the boy group SHINee and singer Kim Jae-hwan, are slated to hit the music scene with their new releases in the coming weeks. Singer Key is rolling out his second full-length solo album, after releasing his first solo mini-album, “BAD LOVE,” last year.

The new album, “Gasoline,” set to hit streaming sites at 6 p.m. on Aug. 30, will be the artist's second solo full-length album following “FACE” in 2018. It will consist of 11 tracks, including the title track, for which the artist himself wrote the lyrics.

Singer-songwriter Kim Jae-hwan, who is also known as Jaehwan of disbanded project group Wanna One, will be releasing a new album, following the success of his previous self-produced album, “THE LETTER,” last December.

The singer's agency, Swing Entertainment, announced Monday that Kim will be dropping his fifth mini-album, “Empty Dream,” at 6 p.m. on Sept. 5, along with a teaser image of the album.

Kim, who made his solo debut in 2019 after the group disbanded, has been building his career as a singer-songwriter solo artist, releasing songs he wrote, such as “I Wouldn't Look for You” (2021) and taking part in soundtracks for hit TV series like “Crash Landing on You” (2019).

Singer Parc Jae-jung, who took the music scene by storm as a member of the project group MSG Wannabe last year, will be releasing a self-composed and written song “Letter To B” on Sept. 1.

The song is one of the tracks for Parc's upcoming album, which he is gearing up to release at some point in the near future. This will be his first full-length album in his nine-year music career.

Xiumin, a member of the K-pop boy group EXO, will make a solo debut, according to his agency SM Entertainment.

“EXO's Xiumin is preparing for his first solo album, hoping to release it at the end of September,” the agency announced on Aug. 18.

This will be his first official solo act since he debuted as a part of the nine-member group in 2012, aside from taking part in the creation of soundtracks for TV series, like the popular period drama “Mr. Queen” (2020).

The singer gave a glimpse of his upcoming album during the recent concert, SMTOWN LIVE 2022, held on Saturday, performing one of the tracks, “Serenity.”