CHECKMATE (Album)

## Alternate Covers

### Producer(s)

Noday · Czaer · Max Martin · Calvin Harris · RYUJIN · YUNA · YEJI · Avril Lavigne · Chris Young · 9th Wonder · Dr Dre

## Singles from *CHECKMATE - The 2nd Full Album*

1. RACER
Released: March 28, 2022
2. CHECKMATE
Released: July 4, 2022

**CHECKMATE - The 2nd Full Album** is the second studio album released by South Korean girl group VALKYRIE. It was released on July 4, 2022 through Virtual Entertainment, with a pre-release single RACER being released through a collaborative partnership with Interscope. The album consists of five tracks, including the lead single CHECKMATE

The album was a global success, debuting in the top 10 of every chart in the world, however in comparison to their previous album, it is their shortest full length album. It has since sold over 5 million units since it's release around the world. The album was later promoted on their first world tour titled CHECKMATE - The 1st World Tour.

### Background & Composition

Coming off of the release of GIRLS, the group went inactive for two years to pursue solo activities, alongside various brand deals and partnerships with designer brands. As fans began to rally for the group to put out more music due to their slim discography, social media took to a storm to diminish the groups accomplishments.

As revealed in the behind the scenes videos of the recording of the album, VALKYRIE was very aware of the comments by people on social media and as a result chose to record RACER, which lead to the development of CHECKMATE. RACER was originally meant to be a ballad mixed with an up-tempo remixed element, however it was later kept to a hyper-pop song that was fun, and centered on racing past the competition.

CHECKMATE was originally meant to be a Pop R&B infused heavy song, later changed to a Pop Rock song with the assistance of Avril, one of the icons behind the Pop Punk trend in the 2000s! CHECKMATE highlighted all of the members vocals in a creative and powerful way, while also RYUJIN's rapping was heavily emphasized throughout the song.

ENDFUL was included on the album, as it was recorded in 2018, or 2019 reportedly as it was performed at the Virtual 2019 End Of Year Promotional Event. No real information was included for this single on the album unfortunately, the other singles have all been released in the years before GIRLS.

### Cover & Packaging

The album was delivered in six format(s) for fans around the world who ordered the album. The physical edition came in six formats with the first five formats being based off of the members in their own special chosen format kept in a royal design, with the cover being the member in a racer themed battle gear, on a desert field. The sixth version of the album packaging was a royal gold with a closeup of the members from the M/V set, prepared for war, with it being praised by fans on its revelation for how stunning the cover looked. Alongside, it came with a key to unlock the album, as it was encased in an embossed small encasing. All editions come standard with photocards, and the members edition comes with exclusive photocards, posters, and an additional vinyl with the member, and the first place edition contained additional photocards, contained 5 random cards out of each member edition, the VALKYRIE light-stick, and two special formats of the vinyl with one format featuring an exclusive vinyl cover of the members all peering down in the center, and the other vinyl containing GIRLS! on its disc.

The official cover featured the members with their hands all on a glass checker piece, with a chessboard being laid out on a table, with more glass pieces. An additional cover was produced with the members posing in black and white themed clothing to continue on with the RACER themed format.

 Source
 Source
 Exclaim.ca

### Critical Reception

Upon release, the album was met with mildly great reviews, with some generally in disbelief Virtual Entertainment had fans waiting two years just to re-package their previously released singles and throw in three more singles in and call it a full album in comparison to GIRLS. Many fans on Twitter criticized this move however later changed their stance as for the first time in VALKYRIE's career, they toured, and had two comebacks all in one year.

The album is one of VALKYRIE's least favorited albums by critics with an overall rating of 71% on Metacritic. Despite *RollingStone* clearing the album as one of the best, the article, and the post were later quoted a numerous amount of times, causing its own scandal for the laziness of Virtual with the album, and reusing old music and two year hiatus with just three new tracks.

### Commercial Performance

On July 4, 2022 Virtual Entertainment, and various distributors totaled the sales up to over a million pre-orders for the album. The album debuted at #2 on the US Billboard 200, and in the top 10 of various other charts. In South Korea, the album debuted at #1 on the Gaon album chart, moving 272,347 units in its first week. On Gaon's outsider chart for Asia's chart it sold 907,824 units in its first week.

The album debuted on the global streaming platform according to Streamies, with 54,460,921 estimated streams spread out across the album. In its second week, the album rose to over 108,159,075 streams and #2 on the chart, behind Big Sean reaching a new peak of #2 before falling to #5 with 60,291,466 streams before exiting the top 10 of the chart after a month.

### Album Track List

#### Instrumental (2022)

 Released under Virtual Entertainment with track(s) #4 being released in collaboration with Interscope under an agreement | 2022

VALKYRIE's 2023 photo from a tweet thanking the fansVALKYRIE in their outfits for the final act of their tour on Day 1CHECKMATE World Tour Opening StageVALKYRIE on a music show to promote CHECKMATE.CHECKMATE World Tour Promotional AdCHECKMATE - The 2nd Full Album CoverCHECKMATE's alternative cover // the single cover