Photo: Courtesy of MORE VISION
LNGSHOT released S.W.I.S.H., their second EP, on Tuesday, closing a debut year that took the four-member group from a Seoul rookie launch to arena stages across three continents.
The numbers have moved quickly. The group has passed 500 million Spotify streams since its January debut, more than 120 million of them for "Moonwalkin'". That song entered Mediabase's US Top 40 radio chart in October, and Billboard named LNGSHOT its K-Pop Rookie of the Month.
Ten months after debut, Jay Park's first idol group returns with a five-track EP the members helped write, and a fruit truck touring Seoul to announce it.
The new EP is led by "Bananas", a dance-pop single built on the phrase "go bananas". The label said the track reflects how the group's world has changed since debut, and that its video pays homage to K-pop's past while looking at the future the four want to shape.
Ohyul, Ryul, Woojin and Louis wrote and composed across the record, putting the ten months since their debut into the songs. The title stands for "Swag With Integrity Shapes History", a line MORE VISION said sums up the group's commitment to doing things their own way.
Alongside "Bananas" sit "Wanna Go", "Up & Away", "Beep Beep" and "Masterpiece", the alternative R&B pre-release that arrived on 21 October with a video starring the Japanese actress Ayaka Miyoshi. The video reached number one on YouTube's trending chart.
It has been a full first year for an independent label's first idol group. MORE VISION said it built LNGSHOT on the belief that a new generation of Korean artists can work with more freedom and authorship. Complex called January's debut EP SHOT CALLERS "the year's most confident debut".
March brought Training Day, a set of trainee-era recordings, and May brought 4SHOBOIZ Vol. 2: 4SHOVILLE, a mixtape made with Park. The partnership then put the group on stage as special guests on his SERENADES & BODY ROLLS world tour, through Latin America, North America and Europe, including OVO Arena Wembley on 26 October.
Photo: Courtesy of MORE VISION
Their hopes for the comeback are refreshingly simple. Louis told Tenasia he would love a first music show win with "Bananas". Ohyul said he hoped more people in Korea would get to know LNGSHOT.
The campaign at home started with fruit. From 4 November a truck toured Seoul selling bananas at ₩1,110 a bunch, the price doubling as the release date, 11.10, Tenasia reported. Its slogans punned on banhana, Korean for "will you fall for it", and the announcements from its speakers were recorded by the members.
Translations from Korean are Zutter's own.
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LNGSHOT close their rookie year with S.W.I.S.H., a five-track EP led by “Bananas”, after a US Top 40 radio hit and a banana truck tour of Seoul.