GFRIEND’s Yuju Debut Album [REC.]
A mix of melancholy, confidence, resentment, and the bliss of freedom.
In a Zoom call with Clash, the 24-year-old singer refers to her solo debut album, REC., as a “memoir” — an index of emotions she felt throughout different stages of her life. “I just put all parts of [an] emotional experience into one album,” she says.
Blue and red. The colors permeating the album. The music video for ‘Play’ recalls both, while ‘Cold Winter’ and ‘Blue Nostalgia’ is the opposite of ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘The Killa’.
Bad Blood
Yuju: ‘Bad Blood’ is a very short but intense song.
Wendy [Red Velvet]: I didn’t think there are lyrics for intro, but there are.
Yuju: I know, right? Actually, this song was recommended by Konnect’s A&R team, Ididn’t pick it. The A&R team leader said “Yuju is very polite and kind but I think there’s a monster inside of you. I hope you take that out in the intro song” and recommended it to me. I was like ‘me?’, so (i/we wrote) the lyrics and ended up singing it
Wendy: oh, I liked it. It’s nice that this song came out and then ‘Play’, because it’s connected.
Play
“It was hard to be bring out my cheerful feelings. There was a little bit of anger and sadness inside me, but Ialso had confidence in myself. It was a state of mixed emotions. After thinking of expressing the disillusionment and freedom, ‘Play’ came out.” — Yuju for
More information:
Cold Winter
take me somewhere else, i like the loneliness and excitement of those times. if not, just leave me intoxicated by this scent.
More information:
The Killa
More information:
Blue Nostalgia
More information:
Latest Release
Yuju’s second digital single ‘Evening’ with Big Naughty. The first digital single was ‘Love Rain’ featuring Suran:
Interviews
Bonus / Misc
Read the translations for the album:
The singer always had a passion for songwriting, but kept it for herself rather than to share with the world.
The first song she wrote for GFRIEND ‘Eye of the Storm’, a piece from a diary entry from the times the girl group was at its peak, and she was trying to find herself in the time inside the eye of the storm (fame and overwork), says ‘My time, my song. I’ll let you listen now.’.
End.
