Lion Heart (album)

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Lion Heart
GirlsGeneration5thAlbumLionHeart.jpg
Studio album by Girls' Generation
Released August 19, 2015
Recorded 2015
Genre Bubblegum pop, electropop
Length 41:14
Language Korean
Label
Producer
Girls' Generation chronology
The Best
(2014)The Best2014		 Lion Heart
(2015)
Singles from Lion Heart
  1. "Party"
    Released: July 7, 2015
  2. "Lion Heart"
    Released: August 18, 2015
  3. "You Think"
    Released: August 19, 2015

Lion Heart is the fifth Korean studio album by South Korean Girls' Generation. It marked their first album as an eight-member group since the departure of member Jessica in September 2014. Produced by Sean Alexander, Baby Dee Beats, Dsign Music, Kenzie, Teddy Riley, and The Underdogs, Lion Heart is musically an electropop and bubblegum pop album. The album was released in two parts throughout August 18 and 19, 2015 by S.M. Entertainment. Another version with a different cover titled You Think was released on August 26, 2015.

The album produced three singles. The lead single "Party" was released on July 7, 2015, and peaked atop the Gaon Digital Chart and at number ten on the Japan Hot 100. Follow-up singles "Lion Heart" and "You Think" were released on August 18 and 19, charting at number four and thirty on the Gaon Digital Chart, respectively. To promote the album, Girls' Generation appeared on several South Korean music programs, such as Music Bank, Show! Music Core, and Inkigayo, and performed songs from the album. The group eventually embarked on a concert tour named Girls' Generation's Phantasia, which commenced on November 21, 2015 in Seoul and visited East and Southeast Asia.

Lion Heart received mixed reviews from music critics, who opined that the album's styles were too generic and considered it a decline in the group's career. It was nonetheless a commercial success in South Korea, peaking atop the Gaon Album Chart for two weeks and becoming the 13th best-selling album of 2015 in the country. The album also peaked atop the US Billboard World Albums Chart and charted at number 11 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart.

Background and composition

South Korean girl group Girls' Generation had achieved success on the Asian music scene with hit singles such as "Gee" and "I Got a Boy" since their 2007 debut as a nine-piece girl group, consisting of members Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, Seohyun, and Jessica.[1][2] In September 2014, Jessica announced that she had been dismissed as a member of Girls' Generation by their parent company S.M. Entertainment due to her schedule conflict between the group's mutual music activities and her own fashion business Blanc & Eclare; the group continued as an eight-member group thereafter.[3] Girls' Generation subsequently announced their first release as an eight-member group–an EDM single titled "Catch Me If You Can" in March 2015.[4]

According to Slant Magazine's Anzhe Zhang, Lion Heart consists of primarily bubblegum pop songs.[5] Echoing Zhang's viewpoint, Chester Chin from Malaysian newspaper The Star wrote that the album was a collection of bubblegum pop tracks.[6] The album's opening track "Lion Heart" is a soul pop-influenced bubblegum pop song. It embraces a retro-styled sound and is instrumented by basslines and brass.[7] "Party" is detailed as an electropop and bubblegum pop song that is backed up by guitars, synthesizers and Auto-Tune.[8][9] Aside from the signature bubblegum pop sound, Lion Heart also ventures into other genres. "You Think" is characterized as an electropop and hip hop number featuring trap beats and horns in its composition.[5][10] "One Afternoon" draws influences from bossa nova and incorporates Spanish guitars,[5] while "Show Girls" is an electropop song that was originally recorded in Japanese for the group's 2014 greatest hits album The Best.[5][11] "Check" is a mild R&B track,[12] while "Sign" is described as a dark synthpop song,[12] and "Bump It" is a hybrid of various genres that incorporates hi-hat beats.[5]

Release and promotion

Girls' Generation performing at MBC's 2015 DMC Festival

On June 30, 2015, the group released music video previews of three then-forthcoming singles–"Party", "Lion Heart" and "You Think" as a promotional tool for their first Korean studio album as an eight-member group.[13] The album's details including its title Lion Heart, the release dates, the cover artwork and the tracklist were announced on August 12, 2015. The group's label S.M. Entertainment revealed that the album would be released throughout two days–the first six songs including the single "Lion Heart" would be made available on August 18, while the remaining six songs including the single "You Think" would be distributed on the following day;[14] Billboard described the release strategy as "atypical."[15] Another edition with a different cover titled You Think was also released on August 26, 2015.[16]

Following the release of the album, Girls' Generation appeared on several South Korean music programs including KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core, and SBS' Inkigayo to promote the album, performing "Lion Heart" and "You Think".[17] Throughout August 18–25, the group also participated and interacted with viewers through a series of mobile video live stream on Naver’s mobile application "V".[18] The group also embarked on a concert tour titled Girls' Generation's Phantasia, which kicked off on November 21, 2015 at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, and continued on to Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan, respectively.[19]

Singles

"Party" was released as the lead single from Lion Heart; it was released for digital purchase by S.M. Entertainment on July 7, 2015.[20][21] The physical CD single was released on July 8.[22] A music video song was released in conjunction with the release of the single.[23] "Party" was a commercial success in South Korea, debuting atop the Gaon Digital Chart on the chart issue dated July 5–11, 2015, selling 256,390 digital units within its first week of release.[24] As of December 2015, "Party" has sold over 843,843 digital units in South Korea, becoming the 58th best-selling single of 2015.[25] "Party" additionally peaked at number 10 on the Japan Hot 100 and number 4 on the Billboard World Digital Songs.[26]

"Lion Heart" was serviced as the album's second single; its music video was released on August 18, 2015.[7] "You Think" served as the album's third single, and its music video was released the day following the release of "Lion Heart".[10] "Lion Heart" was added to Korean Broadcasting System's "K-Pop Connection" radio playlist on August 21,[27] while "You Think" impacted KBS radio on August 23.[28] Both songs charted on the Gaon Digital Chart, peaking at numbers 4 and 30, respectively.[29]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Slant Magazine[5] 3/5 stars
Neo Music Community[12] 3.5/5 stars
The Star[6] 6/10

Upon its release, Lion Heart garnered mixed reviews from music critics. Slant Magazine's Anzhe Zhang wrote that the album was released to "quash" the suspicions that Girls' Generation was declining after the departure of member Jessica in September 2014. However, she added: "while [the album]'s great for omnivorous die-hard fans, it ultimately feels a little more than scatter-brained."[5] Chester Chin writing for Malaysian newspaper The Star praised the release of singles "Party", "Lion Heart" and "You Think" as "a promising start." Nevertheless, he disapproved of the rest of the album, dubbing it a "relatively tame offering" for "[traversing] way too quickly into filler territory" and criticized the songs "Green Light" and "Paradise" for being too "generic."[6] Kim Do-heon from South Korean web portal Neo Music Community was slightly more positive towards the album, calling it "elegant" and appreciated the album's musical styles even though he felt that it was a decline compared to the group's previous albums as a nine-piece group.[12]

The album was a commercial success in South Korea. It debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart on the chart issue dated August 18–22, 2015, and remained on the top spot for a further week.[30][31] Two weeks after its debut chart appearance, it dropped 35 positions, charting at number 36.[32] Lion Heart was the best-selling album of August 2015 in South Korea, selling 131,228 physical copies.[33] Overall, the album was the 13th best-selling album of 2015 in the country, with accumulated sales standing at 145,044 copies.[34] The album also charted at number 11 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart on the chart issue dated August 31, 2015.[35] Lion Heart additionally peaked atop the Billboard World Albums chart, becoming the group's second number one following their 2013 album I Got a Boy.[36]

Track listing

No. Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "Lion Heart"   Jam Factory, Joy Factory Sean Alexander, Darren "Baby Dee Beats" Smith, Claudia Brant 3:44
2. "You Think"   Brandon Sammons (Massive Muzik), Sara Forsberg Sara Forsberg, Dante Jones, Ryan Jhun, Denzil "iDR" Remedios 3:09
3. "Party"   Jo Yun-gyeong Albi Albertsson, Chris Young, Shin Agnes 3:13
4. "One Afternoon" (어떤 오후) Hwang Hyun (MonoTree), Shin Agnes Hwang Hyun (MonoTree), Shin Agnes 3:35
5. "Show Girls" (Korean version) Mafly Ricky Hanley, Paul Drew, Greig Watts, Pete Barringer, Joe Killington, Katerina Bramley 3:39
6. "Fire Alarm"   Kenzie Kenzie, Trinity Music 3:11
7. "Talk Talk"   Cho Yoon-kyung Mental Audio, Ylva Dimberg 3:23
8. "Green Light"   Mafly The Underdogs, Mike Daley, Andrew Hey, Britany Burton, Rodnae "Chikk" Bell 2:52
9. "Paradise"   U.F.O (Jam Factory), Mafly Nermin Harambašić, Courtney Woolsey, Charite Viken, Erik Fjeld, Saima Mian 3:50
10. "Check"   Mafly Teddy Riley, Lee Hyun-seung, Dominique Rodriguez, Daniel "Obi" Klein, Engelina Larsen 3:26
11. "Sign"   Kim Bu-min Hitchhiker 3:17
12. "Bump It" (예감) Cho Yoon-kyung Anne Judith Wik, Ronny Svendsen, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Greg Fizgerald 3:48
Total length:
 41:14

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Lion Heart liner notes[37]

  • Production management – S.M. Entertainment Co., Ltd.
  • Producer – Lee Soo Man
  • Manager – Nam So Young
  • Media manager – Jeong Chang Hwan

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Japan (Oricon)[35] 11
South Korea (Gaon Album Chart)[30] 1
US World Albums Chart (Billboard)[36] 1
US Heatseekers Albums Chart (Billboard)[38] 7

Year-end chart

Chart (2015) Position
South Korea (Gaon Album Chart)[34] 13

Release history

Country Date Edition Format Label
South Korea[39] August 18, 2015 Lion Heart part 1 Digital download S.M. Entertainment
August 19, 2015 Lion Heart part 2
Worldwide[40] Standard
South Korea[41][42] August 20, 2015 CD
August 26, 2015 You Think edition
Taiwan[43] March 18, 2016 Standard CD + DVD Universal Music Taiwan

References

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  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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