EXO's Chanyeol returns with his 2nd mini-album "Upside Down," exploring diverse emotions through music, including joy and pain.
August/25/2025 18:52
Chanyeol of EXO has returned, radiating a thrilling energy as if electrified. Today (25th) at 6 PM, he released his 2nd mini-album "Upside Down" through various music distribution sites. This is a new release about a year after his 1st mini-album "Black Out" last August. "Upside Down" contains various emotions that everyone feels in life. As the album name suggests, meaning 'turned upside down,' it expresses not only bright moments like happiness, love, and friendship but also dark moments like pain, wounds, and emptiness through music, delivering catharsis to listeners. The title track "Upside Down" is an electronic rock genre harmonizing distortion guitar riffs, classic rock-style drums, and electronic synths. The explosive vocals enhance the clarity of the lyrics' message. Especially, Chanyeol sings about the intersection of despair and hope in a painful situation where 'Everything is upside down I just want a life / It's not easy, everything remains as it is / Can I stand up? Changed my whole lifetime.' He expresses a desire to erase everything from this world, yet he does not want to forget completely, wanting to live again amidst wandering and fear. Ultimately, he delivers thrilling catharsis with a self-declaration reached after pain: 'I can't escape, can I? Changed my whole lifetime / Everything is upside down I just want a life.' This album coincides with the first anniversary of his solo debut and includes a total of six tracks. The collaboration with R&B artist SOLE, "Happy Accident," and "Back & Forth," depicting a dangerous relationship where love leads to hurt, catch the eye. Additionally, there's pop-rock "Ocean Drive" celebrating bright friendship, "High & Dry" portraying the modern person's search for their true self, and "123 Dance" featuring vintage, rough textures. One can encounter Chanyeol's sensibility in music across diverse genres like pop, rock, hip-hop, and R&B centered around band sounds.
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