Five Colors: The Red

**Five Colors: The Red** is the first mini album by The New Black. It was released on November 17, 2014 with 'Masquerade' serving as the title track. Wang Jiho is the center of this album.

## Background

> "The debut song, 꽃불/Fireworks, introduced the color of the group. This time, I wanted to show individual colours to the fans. Jiho's favorite color is red; a color that catches your attention wherever you go. It matched our maknae with his striking appearance."
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Although their group debut was successful, the public was giving too much attention to Woojoo as an individual. Fearing that it might be too late to change the public's perception, he planned to highlight the strengths of the members by making them the center for the succeeding albums. Wang Jiho, the maknae and sub-vocalist, became the first batter as he was being overshadowed by his older brothers. Jiho specializes in acting and stage performance — which became the main focal of the album.

## Release

### Promotions

The release of their album coincided with TJ Entertainment's top boy group TNT and MOP's rookie girl group Serenity. The promotion started a day after the CSAT. Group and individual concept photos, MV teasers, and a highlight medley were uploaded in the following week. On the day of the showcase, they premiered the story film and the Masquerade MV.

### Visuals

Group photos: Two concept photos were released. The background was the same. An old-fashioned room illuminated by intense red and blue color lighting. We sat around a round wooden table. The five of us were facing the front, each with a slightly different mask for the ball.

Individual: It is a black and white photo with a gray city in the background, and only red objects are colored. They were all dressed in disheveled shirts, like people being chased somewhere.

* Woojoo: brown hair; standing against a brick wall and looking down at the camera;
* Bijoo: blond hair; crouching down in an alleyway with one knee bent and look over his shoulder;
* Junghyun: brown hair; contemplating in front of a door;
* Leehyuk: brown hair; looking out the window in a dark room; and
* Jiho: red ~~kimchi~~ hair; only one wearing a suit; looking at the crowd in a masked ball.

Story film:

### Reception

* # 10 in Real-time Mango Charts upon release
* 500,000 MV views within 24 hours. 1M views within 48hours.
* Earned them their first #1 on a music show (PBS Music On); five months after their debut. [2014. 12. 12. #1 Masquerade]
* Review by Hwang Hocheol, a popular music critic: [Five Colors: The Red (2014)] - New Black - [★★★★☆]

## Tracks

1. **Masquerade**
2. 꽃불 / Fireworks
3. 바라보다 / Look
4. 별빛 / Starlight
5. Outro: For You

## Masquerade

Masquerade serves as the title track of their first comeback album. It is a song that focuses on lyrics, acting and performance.

> "I really liked it when I saw Woojoo hyung's face in front of the townhall. After being surrounded by masked people, it feels like I finally found someone without a mask on." - Jiho
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> "In my dream, everyone around me was wearing a mask. There, I was alone not wearing anything." - Woojoo
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### Stage Composition

* Choreography: flower origami
* Center for verse 1: Bijoo; for chorus: Woojoo; and for verse 3 and bridge (highlight): Jiho.
* Members wearing the same red tuxedo and masks on their faces
* Public reaction: Regardless of stable live or outstanding dance, there were two things that the audience picked as memorable in the performance:

1. First, it was the main dancer's first verse choreography. A scene where the dancers and the blond member squatting on the side move lightly and return to the main stage. He literally flew. The main dancer, who slid into the stage while singing with a soft voice, kicked his legs. Long legs that arc in the air while rotating their bodies once. It looked light as if there was no gravity. In the meantime, New Black's main dancer sang with a smile without any signs of difficulty.
2. Second, it was the third verse. Red-haired member on the screen while the other four members are standing in place and performing light choreography. The member who was reciting the lyrics walked from the right end with a languid expression. The point was that the expression changed subtly every time I walked with the members on my shoulders one by one. His expression changed once again every time he brushed his hand over his face while grazing a member. The audience who saw the atmosphere change quickly as if changing the mask with elegant hand gestures drew attention. Meanwhile, his falsetto filled the concert hall.

### Lyrics

[Verse 3: Jiho]

멈춰버린 음악 속 In the music that stopped

가면을 벗고 without a mask

날 위한 미소를 보여줘 Show me a smile for me

## 꽃불 / Fireworks

See main article First Chapter for details about this track.

## 별빛 / Starlight

> "People often compare celebrities to the word 'star'. They claim that these celebrities attract the public's attention by shining like a star floating in the night sky. But I don't completely agree with that. No one is special because everyone has the same light. Even when I met those celebrities in person, I thought they weren't any different from everyone else. They didn't have the so-called 'special aura'. So I wanted to say this: some people shine brighter than the others thanks to the eyes directed in his/her direction. 별빛 / Starlight was the title that came to mind. It is the light in everyone's eyes that makes someone a star." - Woojoo
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Starlight is a fan song. Using a loop pedal station, they performed it for the first time during the first fanmeeting. Several versions of the song were done after having fanmeetings in different countries. Depending on the country, they would switch the theme and language used in the song.

At first, the members wanted to hire a lyricist, but they eventually decided to write their own lyrics.

* Jiho: wrote it without any pretense.
* Leehyuk: ended up writing 500 characters just to say what he wanted to say ("thank you", "i love you" "i want to meet you again" "i want to continue being with you in the future" "i'm sorry")
* Junghyun: wants to be together for a long time (50th anniversary)
* Bijoo: gave 23 lists to be thankful for
* Woojoo: on behalf of the group

### Lyrics

[Verse 1: Jiho, Leehyuk]

Jiho

말하는 대로 이뤄진다면 If what you say comes true as I say

이 세상 모든 계절이 All the seasons in the world

우리의 시간이길 바래요 I hope it's our time

Leehyuk

조금씩 다가갈 수 있도록 So that we can approach each other little by little

내 이름을 기억해 줘 Please remember my name

[Verse 2: Junghyun, Bijoo]

Junghyun

시간에 끝이 없다면 If time has no end

그건 우리일 거야 That's gonna be us

Bijoo

포근히 안아 줄게요 I'll give you a warm hug

내게로 와요 Come to me

[Pre-chorus: Woojoo]

기나긴 밤이 지나 After a long night

그대의 눈이 별이 되어 Your eyes become stars

우리에게 닿는다면 When it reaches us

[Chorus: Everyone]

간직해요 Keep it

그대와 나의 별빛을 The starlight between you and me

기억해요 I remember

우리의 시간을 Our time

## Outro: For You

After the filming of Jusehan, Junghyun and rapper Haitian (헤이션) decided to collaborate after hitting it off. Originally, there were supposed to be an intro as well, but the creation of the song took longer than expected. The public was surprised by the rapper's participation since he has publicly criticized idols and the idol industry for being "fake". Unable to hide his curiosity, Woojoo asked about his participation:

> “Well, I still don’t like idols. Oh, I'm not talking about you guys, I just don't like the system itself. But, as I got older, I realized," Haitian raised his thumb with a serious expression. “Money is the best.”
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## References

1. ↑ Episode 117
2. ↑ Episode 139
3. ↑ Episode 143
4. ↑ Episode 143 | Additional description: Crossing your legs, draping your arms across the back of a chair, or just staring at them leisurely. Their postures were different, but their facial expressions were the same. It looks intense on the outside, but the closer you look, the more lifeless or sad the expression is. It was a facial expression that made use of the concept of the 1st mini album, 'mask'. But even without anyone telling us, we knew who the MVP of this shoot was. Right in the middle of the photo. A red-haired figure sitting in a chair with his back turned closest to the camera. I was looking back with my arms resting on the backrest, but there was an expressionless expression that gave off a feeling of loneliness. That was the expression illuminated by the blue light that became like a turquoise on the left. The red-lit face on the right had the same expression, but it seemed strangely smiling. Because of the different lighting, the face looks like it's wearing a mask. He had the impression of not being our youngest, but of a scion from a parallel world somewhere
5. ↑ Episode 143
6. ↑ Episode 144
7. ↑ chapter 145
8. ↑ chapter 145
9. ↑ Episode 146
10. ↑ Episode 154
11. ↑ Chapter 145 | "Finally, a group that knows how to handle color appeared. It is common for agencies to express the concept of an album through color, but New Black has done it. It was a success with colorful and skillful brush strokes. The 1st mini album, which was produced by member Woojoo himself, is not special in its structure, but it succeeded in walking a delicate tightrope between commerciality and artistry. That you can reveal your unique color even though you don't belong to either side... (omitted) … The fact that they debuted less than a year ago, and their potential, makes me happy for the first time in a while."
12. ↑ Episode 223
13. ↑ Episode 114
14. ↑ Episode 114
15. ↑ Episode 158
16. ↑ Episode 139
17. ↑ Episode 152
18. ↑ Episode 135
19. ↑ Episode 135
20. ↑ Episode 183
21. ↑ Episode 135
22. ↑ Episode 132 | Woojoo thought to himself, 'It was a saying like gold and jade, so I engraved it in my heart.'