NCT 2018 EMPATHY

**NCT 2018 EMPATHY** is the debut studio album by South Korean boy group NCT, an unlimited group project under the management of SM Entertainment. It was released on March 14, 2018.

WayV members Kun, Ten, Winwin, and Lucas participated in the album, though at the time, the lineup for WayV (which was then called NCT China) was not yet finalized. The NCT 2018 project marked the debut of members Kun and Lucas.

## Background and release

In mid-January, SM Entertainment unveiled NCT 2018, a singular-year project involving all current members of NCT. Through the "NCT 2018 Yearbook #1" video on January 30, the label officially introduced new members Kun, Lucas, and Jungwoo to the current line-up of NCT. Followed by a series of online documentary videos titled *NCTmentary* as part of the NCT 2018 project, the group shared "NCT Yearbook #2" video via their official YouTube channel on February 5. The label eventually revealed that the group would release their first large-scale project as a studio album the following day, with all eighteen members participated accordingly to their sub-unit and music project for NCT U.

## Music

*NCT 2018 EMPATHY* consists of fourteen tracks in total, including an instrumental intro and outro and one extended version of a new song. The album also includes five previously released songs for its latter half, namely "일곱 번째 감각 (The 7th Sense)", the Korean and Chinese versions of "WITHOUT YOU" and "Timeless" by NCT U, while "夢中夢 (몽중몽; Dream In A Dream)" is an English solo record by member Ten, which along with "Timeless" was originally part of the SM Station project. The new recording material includes "BOSS", a future-bass hip-hop track with "heavy bass riffs" which is produced by Mike Daley, Mitchell Owens, Tiffany Fred, Patrick "J. Que" Smith and Yoo Young-jin. With co-writing contribution by member Taeyong and Mark, the song contains the message of how the modern society "needs true empathy" and the unit's aspiration to bring out such empathy. Seven members participated in recording the song: Taeyong, Doyoung, Winwin, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Lucas and Mark. It is followed by "Baby Don't Stop", an electro-hop, synth-pop track co-produced again by Yoo Young-jin with contribution from producer Matt Schwartz and Ryan S. Jhun. It possesses an "impressive" minimalist sonic composition with "addictive" drum and bass riff, expressing the sensation of an immediate love. It was also co-written by member Taeyong, whom performed the track along with member Ten as NCT U. He also contributed lyrically to the third and final new NCT U record, titled "YESTODAY". It was described as a "sorrowful" old-school hip-hop influenced track, with member Taeyong, Doyoung, Lucas and Mark rapping and singing about how "today will eventually become yesterday".

Other new material for the album includes the tropical-house influenced "Touch" by NCT 127. Produced by production team LDN Noise, Deez and Adrian McKinnon, the song offers a "softer side" for the nine-member unit in comparison to their signature intense hip hop style. In contrast, the teen-aged sub-unit NCT Dream also offers their "rebellious" side with the electro-hop bombast of "Go", featuring heavy hi-hats and snare lines that resembles more of a hip hop venture than the group's usual "youthful leanings" of their earlier discography. The rap-centric "Black on Black" is a "booming" electro-dance production featuring roars and "highly distorted" vocals, which credited NCT 2018 as the performers though only the rap-line members (Taeyong, Mark, Lucas) participated in the recording of the song.

## Commercial performance

Prior to the album's release, *NCT 2018 Empathy* already achieved 203,000 pre-orders, eventually topped several iTunes country charts upon its release. The album then entered and peaked at number two on the Gaon Album Chart on the week of March 17, 2018, being held off the top position by Got7's *Eyes on You.* It was the third best-selling album on the March 2018 issue of the monthly album chart, and subsequently the thirteen best-selling album on the year-end album chart, having sold a total of 330,335 physical copies. It was the first album by NCT to receive a Platinum certificate by KMCA since its introduction in the same year, which granted a Platinum certificate for every album release that achieved a cumulative sales of over 250,000 copies.

## Audio

*Note: Audio cannot be viewed on mobile devices.*

## Promotions

*Please see NCT 2018 EMPATHY/Promotions.*

## References

1. ↑ http://www.xportsnews.com/jenter/?ac=article\_view&entry\_id=933151&\_REFERER=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.daum.net%2Fsearch%3Fw%3Dnews%26nil\_search%3Dbtn%26DA%3DNTB%26enc%3Dutf8%26cluster%3Dy%26cluster\_page%3D1%26q%3DNCT
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCT\_2018\_Empathy#cite\_note-10
3. ↑ https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news\_id=N1004599958&plink=SEARCH&cooper=SBSNEWSSEARCH
4. ↑ http://vod.melon.com/video/detail2.htm?mvId=50179733&menuId=27040101
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCT\_2018\_Empathy#cite\_note-13

## Navigation

 **Previous releases** | 일곱 번째 감각 (The 7th Sense) (Ten) • WITHOUT YOU (Kun) • 몽중몽 (梦中梦; Dream in a Dream) (Ten)