Come into Seventeen’s ‘_World’

One of K-pop’s “most unique bands,” releases fourth repackaged album. PHOTO CREDIT: grammy.com

K-pop band Seventeen’s fourth repackage album was released on July 18, 2022, and it featured four new songs including the title track “_World.” This album is a repackage of their fourth full-length album “Face the Sun,” which was released May 27, 2022. 

Seventeen made their debut on May 26, 2015 with their EP “17 Carat” and their debut title track “Adore U.” This album became the longest-charting K-pop album of the year in America. It was also the only rookie album to appear on Billboard’s ten best K-pop Albums of 2015 list.

Seventeen as a band themselves is one of the most unique bands, having a total of 13 members and three leaders. The members are S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino. S.Coups is the group’s main leader, but the band is split into three subunits, or teams, for Vocals, Rap/Hip-Hop and Dance/Performance. Jun and The8 (The8’s real name is Minghao), are from China and Joshua and Vernon are from America. Vernon, however, moved to Korea when he was five years old.

The Vocal Team consists of Jeonghan, Joshua, Woozi, DK and Seungkwan, with Woozi as the leader. The Hip-Hop Team is S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Vernon, and S.Coups is their leader. The Performance Team is Jun, Hoshi, The8 and Dino, with Hoshi as the leader. 

The name of the band actually comes from the number of members and units. 13 members plus three leaders plus one band equals Seventeen!

They are also entirely self-produced with Woozi writing and producing almost every single one of their songs with the help from fellow singer, songwriter and record producer Bumzu. The other members also write on songs as well, with the Hip-Hop team members each writing all of their raps separately. 

Seventeen is one of my favorite groups. I love all of their songs as well as their unit songs. They often do a lot of songs with their respective teams, but sometimes they mix it up and have random members singing on songs. Some songs have completely random members, some have songs with members born in the same year and some will have songs with the foreign members. 

The members’ ages range from 1995-1999. S.Coups, Jeonghan and Joshua (27) were born in 1995. Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo and Woozi (26) were born in 1996. Mingyu, DK and The8 (25) were born in 1997. Seungkwan and Vernon (24) were born in 1998, and their youngest member (Makane- Korean for youngest) is Dino (23) who was born in 1999.

I listed them in the order of their ages above,  except for The8. He’s younger than Mingyu and DK, but his nickname is The8 and Mingyu is the eighth oldest, they list him before Mingyu. The meaning behind his stage name is that when the number eight is laid horizontally, it makes an infinite sign.

I won’t go into all their stage names and meanings, so let’s get into the album!

My absolute favorite from the album is “HOT,” which was the title track for “Face the Sun.” The beat, the vocals, the rapping, the choreography, the music video, the everything. I could not get over this song and I’m still not over it. This was one of the songs that I could somewhat follow and learn the dance to, but then it got hard and I almost sprained something. DK’s voice in this song was absolutely godly. When I heard him sing the first pre-chorus, it was like angels flew down from heaven. Wonwoo’s rap and Minghao’s chorus were also my favorite parts of the song too.

“DON QUIXOTE” rivals being my favorite from the album. Wonwoo’s rap was the best part of the song because of how deep and raspy his voice sounds when he’s rapping. I replay it constantly because I cannot get over how good he sounds when he’s rapping. The singing and slow to fast tempo beat added more power to this song too.

I didn’t go to their concert when they toured America last summer, but they apparently didn’t perform this song which made me upset cause it would’ve been awesome to see this live. They did perform it live at the Golden Disc Awards and made a dance routine for it, which made me love it even more.

“_World” made me feel so happy when it came out. It’s such a good-feeling song with an overall sweet vibe. I consider it to be my song of the summer because it was just an outright hit. It’s such an energy boost for when you’re feeling down and I love how all 13 of the members gave it their all with this title track.

“Circles,” “Fallin Flower (Korean Version),” “Darl+ing” and “IF you leave me” were the emotional slow songs off the album. “Circles” has a very deep and emotional meaning to it according to Woozi. He wrote it for all the members claiming it’s what he wanted to say to them; so, when I listen to it I get a bit teary eyed. All of these songs bring me back to reality after literally throwing myself around dancing to the other songs.

“Shadow,” “Ash” and “Cheers” were more fast-paced and hip-hop sounding. “Cheers” was performed by the three leaders and was a pre-release before the album came out. It got me very excited for the actual full album to come out. Vernon’s rap verse in “Ash” again made me dance and whip my head around a little too hard, but that’s alright because the song is an overall banger. DK and Seungkwan made “Shadow” such a perfect song with their captivating vocals too.

“March,” “Domino” and “‘bout you” were not really my favorites from this album, but I really liked them a lot. I would definitely not skip them because they’ve got some catchiness to them that I really enjoy.

Seventeen is so talented and amazing, they’re one of my favorite bands and I listen to them almost every day. They deserve so much love and appreciation for all the hard work that they do. I hope you can give them a listen!