The Red (album)

The Red is the debut studio album by South Korean girl group Red Velvet. It was released on September 9, 2015 by SM Entertainment and distributed by KT Music, marking their second proper release in 2015 following the debut extended play Ice Cream Cake in March 2015. The album focuses solely on the group's "Red" image stemming from the group's name and concept, showing the group's vivid and bold image with mainly pop and R&B incorporation. LDN Noise, Ryan S. Jhun, Denzil "DR" Remedios, Dsign Music, Kenzie, Deekay, Charli Taft, Jinbo, Dem Jointz, as well as others, handled production of the album, with S.M. founder Lee Soo-man serving as the executive producer of the album. A similar conceptual follow-up to the album called The Velvet was later released in the first half of 2016, which was composed of mostly R&B tracks and ballads showcasing the "Velvet" half with a more mature and sophisticated side of the girl group.

The Red
Studio album by
Red Velvet
ReleasedSeptember 9, 2015
Recorded2015
StudioSM Studio Center
Genre
Length33:05
LanguageKorean
Label
Producer
Red Velvet chronology
Ice Cream Cake
(2015)		 The Red
(2015)		 The Velvet
(2016)
Singles from The Red
  1. "Dumb Dumb"
    Released: September 9, 2015

Upon its release, The Red received positive reviews from critics for its musical diversity while showing the "quirkiness" of Red Velvet. The album was a commercial success, becoming Red Velvet's second chart-topper on the Gaon Album Chart in South Korea. It also attained international success, becoming the group's first number one title on the Billboard World Album Chart, while peaking at number twenty-four on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart. It was later included as Billboard's 10 Best K-Pop Albums of 2015.

Promotion for the album was preceded by the release of the lead single "Dumb Dumb" on the same release day, along with live performances on weekly music shows for both "Dumb Dumb" and the album track "Huff 'n' Puff". The lead single was a commercial success, peaking at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and number three on Billboard's World Digital Songs chart while becoming one of the group's signature "Red" singles.

Background and release

Following the group's first major release Ice Cream Cake in March 2015, S.M. Entertainment announced that Red Velvet would be returning with their first full album in early September. On September 3, a series of image teasers were revealed on the group's official Instagram account, along with the album's tracklist. On September 4, the company announced that the full album would be released at midnight on September 9, with "Dumb Dumb" serving as the lead single (aka title track).[1][2] A series of video teasers was released since September 4, including song previews for "Huff 'n' Puff", "Don't U Wait No More", "Time Slip", "Dumb Dumb" and "Red Dress". The music video for the song was released on September 8 while the full album was released on September 9.[3] There are two physical versions for the album, a ’’Red’’ version and a ’’Blue’’ version.

Composition

Concept

Following the group's concept of promoting with both "Red" and "Velvet" images (preceded by their first EP in March 2015), The Red focuses solely on their vivid and strong "Red" image, while seeing the girl group embraces their "fun, peppy" pop-oriented side.[4] While talking about the album at a press conference on September 8, the members and the company also hinted at a similar conceptual promotion that will follow suit after The Red, although an S.M. Entertainment representative explained that nothing has been scheduled in particular yet.[5][6] The album was later proceeded by The Red Summer, Red Velvet's first summer special release which portrays a brighter, more vibrant "Red" sound of the group.

Songs

The album consists of ten songs with main incorporation from dance-pop and R&B. The opening track and lead single "Dumb Dumb" is described as "an uptempo dance track" with "infectious hook" and "groovy beat". Heavily influenced by funk and hip-hop elements, the song is composed by producer Ryan S. Jhun and British production team LDN Noise, the latter whom have previously written and produced songs for fellow S.M. Entertainment labelmate SHINee and TVXQ. The lyrics describes a girl's awkwardness in front of the person of her affection, comparing herself to that of a mannequin.[7] The rap section of "Dumb Dumb" includes several references to Michael Jackson's song discography, such as "Beat It", "Bad", "Billie Jean" and "Thriller". It is followed by "Huff 'n' Puff", an electro-pop song that features a dubstep-like breakdown that sings about waking up from a dream and coming back to reality, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.[8] The third track "Campfire" is described as an R&B pop song that has an ear-catching rhythmical guitar intro. The fourth track "Red Dress" is a dominant dance-pop track with lots of synth element running through the song, clapping-like snare and marching-influenced drumline which tells a story in which a girl wears a red dress and clumsily but slyly tempts a man who treats her only as a child. The soulful, R&B-flavored "Oh Boy" showcases the singing ability and highlights harmonization of the girlgroup, while being the next three songs which are produced by LDN Noise. Ryan S. Jhun co-produced the former two tracks, with additional production by Denzil "DR" Remedios on "Campfire" and Dsign Music on "Red Dress".

The latter half of The Red starts with the sixth track "Lady's Room", an uptempo R&B, synth-pop song that sings about the sisterhood between girls and the happy moments they share. It was one of three tracks produced by Daniel "Obi" Klein along with the next track "Time Slip", which is a 90s-influenced hip hop-based R&B song with lyrics that describes the laziness and listlessness that one feels while going back and forth between dream and reality in the morning. "Time Slip" also sees the participation of British songwriter Charli Taft, whom had previously co-written and produced "Automatic" along with Daniel Klein, while marking the first collaboration from South Korean music producer Jinbo for the girl group. The eighth track "Don't U Wait No More" highlights the group's harmonization over a heavy synth production with a harmonized "Don't you wait no more" hook, with the lyrics revolve around a girl trying to get closer to her hesitant boyfriend, followed by the bossa nova-influenced midtempo pop-rock track "Day 1", which describes the feeling of new love by combining the electric, funky guitar sound and the melodic piano with the vocals of the members. The album ends with "Cool World", a synth-pop uptempo song with hopeful lyrics about embracing and living as themselves.

Promotion

Promoting activities for the album started with a "comeback showcase" by Red Velvet where they performed "Dumb Dumb."[9] They also appeared on a 5-episode live broadcast through the Naver V-Live app called 오방만족! (Satisfying five senses!) Red vs Velvet where they discussed the various concepts of their new album. The first episode was broadcast on September 7. The 2nd episode was broadcast on September 8, with SHINee's Key as the MC.[10] The group made their first comeback stage on M! Countdown on September 10, followed by performances on Music Bank, Show! Music Core and Inkigayo. The group also performed a shortened version "Huff 'n' Puff" on the shows during their first promoting week.[11] The Red was further promoted by Red Velvet on their Red Room Asia tour in 2017, alongside their other releases from 2014 to their latest release The Red Summer at the time.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
IZM[12]
Seoulbeats[13]

Upon its release, The Red received positive reviews from critics for the group embracing their "quirky" side. Billboard's Jeff Benjamin called The Red "an impressive, solid debut album" and stated that it "indicates big things for the act that needs to follow in the footsteps of their beloved female label mates Girls' Generation and f(x)."[14] while Noisey stated that it's "perhaps the strongest top-to-bottom K-pop album to date," praising its "daredevil song forms, harmonies richer and smarter than anything on western dials in a quarter-century, and nonstop virtuoso songsmith hooks—without so much as a single English inflection out of place."[15] A review from Seoulbeats stated that The Red did "live up" to the expectations of the group's earlier "Red" releases, while praising the potential of the group's vocal.[16] In a mixed review from IZM, writer Kim Do-hyun commented that the album "should have been accompanied with more careful judgments", giving the album two and a half stars, though highlighting tracks like "Campfire", "Oh Boy", "Day 1" and "Cool World".[17] Billboard also included it in their '10 Best K-Pop Albums of 2015' and called it "one of the year's most enjoyable and experimental pop LPs."[18] The single "Dumb Dumb" was later included at #70 on Billboard's list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time, praising its hooks and being one of "the most addictive singles in pop".[19] In a separated top 25 Red Velvet songs by Billboard, four songs from The Red made its appearance, including "Dumb Dumb" at No. 4, "Cool World" at No. 13, "Time Slip" at No. 15, and lastly "Red Dress" at No. 21.[20]

Commercial performance

On the week of September 6, 2015, The Red debuted and topped the weekly Gaon Album Chart for one week, becoming the group's second chart-topper in 2015 after their debut extended play in March 2015.[21] The entire ten tracks also charted on the Gaon Digital Chart in the same week. With 46,571 copies sold, The Red was the 53rd best-selling album in 2015 on the year-end Gaon Album Chart, and has since achieved a cumulative sales of almost 80,000 copies as of August 2018.[22] It also attained success in the United States, becoming their first release to top the Billboard's World Albums Chart, and peaked at number twenty-four on its Heatseekers Albums chart, having achieved a total sales of 3,000 copies as of March 30, 2018.[23] Elsewhere, the album also debuted and peaked at No. 47 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart, earning a total sales of almost 4,500 copies.[24]

The music video for "Dumb Dumb" debuted at #1 on YinYueTai's V-Chart Korea. It is also the most viewed k-pop video in America and worldwide for the month of September. Dazed Digital named "Dumb Dumb" their top K-pop track of 2015. In December, "Dumb Dumb" was included in Rolling Stone's '10 Best Music Videos of 2015'.

Track listing

Credits adapted from Naver

The Red
No.TitleLyricsMusicArrangementLength
1."Dumb Dumb"
3:22
2."Huff n Puff"
3:01
3."Campfire"
3:16
4."Red Dress"
3:02
5."Oh Boy"
3:08
6."Lady's Room"
3:15
7."Time Slip"
3:39
8."Don't U Wait No More"
2:51
9."Day 1"
  • Hyun Hwang (MonoTree)
  • Hyun Hwang (MonoTree)
  • MonoTree
3:26
10."Cool World"
  • Im Seo-hyun
4:05
Total length:33:13

Charts

Sales
Chart Amount
Gaon physical sales[31] 79,473+
Oricon physical sales 4,478+
Billboard physical sales[32] 3,000+

Release history
Region Date Format Label
Various[33] September 9, 2015 Digital download SM Entertainment
South Korea CD, digital download SM Entertainment, KT Music

Accolades

Annual music awards
Year Award show Category Nominated work Result
2015 Show Champion Music Awards Best Female Group Performance Dumb Dumb Nominated
2016 Golden Disc Awards Album Division Main Award The Red Nominated
Gaon Chart Music Awards Song of the Month (September 2015) Dumb Dumb Nominated

Music program awards
Song Program Date
"Dumb Dumb"
The Show (SBS MTV) September 15, 2015
Show Champion (MBC Music) September 16, 2015
M Countdown (Mnet) September 17, 2015
Inkigayo (SBS) September 19, 2015
M Countdown (Mnet) September 24, 2015
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References
  1. "Red Velvet Reveals Track List for Their First Album "Red" Through Fun Instagram Surprise". Soompi. September 3, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  2. Lee So-dam (September 4, 2015). "레드벨벳 9월9일 컴백 확정…SM 하반기 첫주자 [스포츠투데이]". Sports Today (in Korean). Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  3. Lee Nancy (September 9, 2015). "Red Velvet to Return with Full-Length Album ′The Red′ on September 9". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  4. "Red Velvet Talk First U.S. Performance, Their New Member Yeri & Summer Songs at KCON 2015: Exclusive". Billboard. 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  5. Lee Seung-rok (September 8, 2015). "레드벨벳 "첫 정규앨범 '더 레드' 발표, 떨리고 설렌다" 소감". My Daily (in Korean). Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  6. Park Sojung (September 8, 2015). "Red Velvet wants to define color red for you". Yonhap News. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  7. Lee Ji Young (September 4, 2015). "Red Velvet to Return with Full-Length Album 'The Red' on September 9". enewsWorld. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  8. Kim Chang-ryul (September 24, 2015). Gayo Plaza (in Korean). Seoul. SBS. SBS Power FM. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. Kim Ye-na (September 4, 2015). "레드벨벳 이번 컴백으로 첫 시도하는 것들". TV Report (in Korean). Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  10. Jeong Si-woo (September 5, 2015). "레드벨벳, 'V' 통해 매력 끝판왕 등극 예고…'오방만족! Red VS Velvet' 진행". 10asia (in Korean). Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  11. Jeon Su-mi (September 5, 2015). "레드벨벳,10일 '엠카' 통해 첫 방송…특급 매력 발산 예고". enews24 (in Korean). Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  12. Kim Do-hyun. "The Red". IZM (in Korean). IZM. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  13. Lo. "The Red". Seoulbeats. Seoulbeats. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  14. Benjamin, Jeff (September 9, 2015). "Red Velvet Drop Brassy 'Dumb Dumb' Single, Quirky 'Red' Album". Billboard. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  15. Dorof, Jakob (December 16, 2015). "2015 WAS THE YEAR K-POP NAILED THE FULL-LENGTH ALBUM". Billboard. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  16. "Red Velvet Expands On Boldness In 'The Red'". Seoulbeats. 2015-09-14. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  17. "Neo Music Communication IZM". www.izm.co.kr. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  18. Benjamin, Jeff; Oak, Jessica (December 30, 2015). "The 10 Best K-Pop Albums of 2015". Billboard. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
  19. "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time: Critics' Picks". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  20. "Red Velvet's 25 Best Songs". Billboard. 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  21. "Gaon Album Chart - Week 38/2015". gaonchart.co.kr. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  22. "2015's Gaon Year-End Album Chart". gaonchart.co.kr. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  23. "Red Velvet Performs in North Korea: 10 Things to Know for the Historic K-Pop Performance". Billboard. 2018-03-30. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  24. "オリコン週間 CDアルバムランキング 2015年09月07日～2015年09月13日 41～50位 | ORICON STYLE". 2015-09-16. Archived from the original on 2015-09-16. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  25. Japan's Oricon Chart from September 7–13, 2015 (in Korean) Originally from Oricon (September 2015). Archived on September 18, 2015. Retrieved on September 18, 2015.
  26. South Korea's Gaon Album Chart from September 6–12, 2015 (in Korean) Originally from Gaon Music Chart (September 2015). Archived on September 18, 2015. Retrieved on September 18, 2015.
  27. Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart Originally from Billboard (September 2015). Archived on September 16, 2015. Retrieved on September 16, 2015.
  28. Billboard's World Albums chart Originally from Billboard (September 2015). Archived on September 16, 2015. Retrieved on September 16, 2015.
  29. South Korea's Monthly Gaon Albums Chart (in Korean) Originally from Gaon Music Chart (September 2015). Archived on October 14, 2015. Retrieved in October, 2015.
  30. South Korea's Year-end Gaon Albums Chart (in Korean) Archived 2016-09-10 at the Wayback Machine Originally from Gaon Music Chart (2015). Retrieved on April 25, 2015.
  31. Cumulative Sales for The Red:
  32. "Red Velvet Performs in North Korea: 10 Things to Know for the Historic K-Pop Performance". Billboard. 2018-03-30. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  33. "The Red – The 1st Album by Red Velvet on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
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