[Album Review] Seventeen's "FML" encourages youth with message of hope

Seventeen (Pledis Entertainment)

K-pop boy group Seventeen is ready to face the hardships of life as they returned full of energy with their 10th EP, “FML,” on Monday.

The 13-member group dived deep into the difficulties the youth face in their life journey and decoded them into healthy and positive music that embraces a message of hope and encouragement.

“F*ck My Life,” shouts the group through the first titular track of the new album.

But the track is actually the opposite of how pessimistic the title sounds.

"F*ck My Life" sings about feeling lost and lonely in this world, where one cannot openly share such difficulties with others.

But the real message of the song appears in the hook, where the band sings, “From now on fight for my life/ For me, fight for my life,” which means that, instead of giving up, one should make effort to recover from a slump.

“It’s a song that is easy to listen to so I recommend you to listen to the song when you want to forget about the present and daydream while looking up at the sky,” said Woozi in a press release on Monday.

For its second titular track, “Super,” Seventeen went wild blasting its fierce energy not only through the music itself but also through choreography.

The Korean title for this track is “Son Goku,” which is a mythical character with a super-power. Seventeen hopes to overcome failures and hardships to evolve just like Son Goku.

The group incorporated a mega crew dance performance for the first time into the music video for this track to accentuate the strong and intense single.

The music video looks like a scene from a kung fu movie.

The drum sounds throughout “Super” that went well with the fast-tempo song were very iconic and unique.

The hook of the song, in which Seventeen chants “DARUMDARIMDA” multiple times, continues to stay in one's head, proving its addictiveness.

“’Super’ is the track that makes you cheer up, and it’s a charming song with a grand sound,” said Seungkwan, introducing the titular track via Apple Music’s Zane Lowe Show.

This album comprises four more tracks, for which the members teamed up into three different units.

The hip-hop team consisting of S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Vernon took part in the sidetrack “Fire.”

Wonwoo and Vernon of Seventeen composed this track.

The track is perfect to tune into when working out or when trying to meet certain life goals as it’s about working passionately to accomplish a goal and aiming for something higher once the goal is accomplished.

Hoshi, Jun and The8 teamed up to form the performance team and they took part in the sidetrack, “I Don’t Understand But I Luv U.”

The R&B track is a song for fans with lyrics saying that even though they speak different languages at different times, they understand each other and share a secret with a password that only they, Seventeen and Carat (the name of their fan community) know.

Seventeen members Woozi, Hoshi and Dino took part in writing the lyrics to this song and Woozi also took part in composing the track.

The vocal team that consists of Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK and Seungkwan took part in the sidetrack, “Dust.”

The synth-pop song is about wanting to forget about a past relationship that is piled up in all parts of oneself like dust.

The vocals of the unit harmonize well with the track, which sounds like a song from an animated movie.

Last but not least, all members took part in the last track, “April shower,” which seems like a perfect song to tune into at this time of the year, when flowers are in bloom after rain showers.

Woozi, who participated in writing the lyrics and composing the song, commented that the song is about how before their debut, Seventeen did not know that the struggles and hardships they faced at that time would help them in the future.

Seventeen's 10th EP sold nearly 4 million copies on the first day alone, setting a new record high, according to Pledis Entertainment -- the agency that houses Seventeen.

"FML" sold about 3,998,300 copies less than 24 hours after its release Monday at 6 p.m., according to data from local album sales tracker Hanteo Chart.

This figure marks the biggest first-week sales of an album in K-pop history.

By Hong Yoo(yoohong@heraldcorp.com)