GFriend ready to sweep charts again with 'LOL'

Members of girl group GFriend perform the tunes from their new album “LOL” during a media showcase event at YES 24 Live Hall in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Source Music

By Kim Jae-heun

K-pop girl group GFriend released their first full-length studio album “LOL,” Monday, ready to sweep music charts and set another record this summer.

After its release Monday at midnight, the first single, “Navillera,” topped seven online music charts, including Melon, Mnet, and Olleh Music.

LOL also topped the iTunes’ album charts in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, establishing GFriend as one of the forefront girl groups of hallyu, or the Korea wave. It also ranked second in Thailand, third in Taiwan and eighth in Indonesia.

“It is a result of a good song, good choreography and support from the staff all combined together,” said member Sowon during a media showcase event at YES24 Live Hall in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul. “It is stressful for us, each time we release a new album, since all our earlier songs have all been received with such love.”

The new album consists of ten songs, including two instrumental tracks, varying in genre from pop and reggae to rock, R&B and house.

“Navillera” is an uplifting rock number featuring a guitar solo and strings. Producers Iggy and Seo Yong-bae, who wrote the girl group’s previous three hit songs, composed this song too. The lyrics refer to the phrase Navillera from Cho Chi-hun’s poem “The Nun’s Dance,” describing a girl’s desire to fly like a butterfly to be with the person she loves.

“We heard the new album’s musical style holds up to our previous works and I’m glad to hear it. It was our goal to show our unique taste in music,” said Sowon.

“It has been a year and a half since we debuted. It is not like we are keeping the same typical style for three or four years, and yet we think we still can stick to our own style.”

Other featured songs like “Fall in Love,” “Mermaid,” “LOL” and “Gone with the Wind” have made it into the top 100 of the online charts. “Mermaid” is a pop ballad inspired from the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” and “Gone with the Wind” is the band’s first dubstep tune.

Band member Eunha said the album spotlights diverse genres. She particularly recommended “Fall in Love,” which caught her ears immediately.

Singer Umji confessed that she had a hard time expressing various feelings in such a short time as the band had to include two to three times more tracks on the new album compared to its previous mini-albums.

GFriend members picked legendary K-pop boy band Shinhwa as their role models, hoping to stay together as long as possible.

The K-pop girl group debuted as a six-member group in 2015, formed by Source Music. The group won several rookie awards last year with their debut EP “Season of Glass.”

According to the Gaon chart, a weekly national music chart complied by the Korea Music Content Industry Association, GFriend became the top ranking group on the Digital Chart Top 100 with their song “Rough” on their third mini-album “Snowflake” released earlier this year.