IVE Pre-Release 'Looks Can Kill' Ahead Of 26 October Mini Album
IVE's title track came out a week before the mini album with a video and a first live stage at Spotify's event in Gangnam, with ILLIT and RIIZE due that day.
IVE released "Looks Can Kill" at 6 pm KST on 19 October, a week before the mini album of the same name. Starship Entertainment calls the song both the title track and a pre-release, which in K-pop means the lead single goes out ahead of the full record. The six-track mini album follows on Monday 26 October.
It is the group's first album in about eight months, since their second full-length record, REVIVE+.
The song
The agency describes "Looks Can Kill" as electronic dance-pop, built on synth pads, heavy bass and busy drums, with a message that anyone can be the hero of their own life. Seo Ji-eum and Lil Cherry wrote the lyrics with Rei, a pairing that goes back through several IVE singles. Gaeul and Liz have lyric credits on another track, "CRUMBS".
After cupids and magical girls in earlier eras, the album's alter ego for the six members is the "girl hero".
The first live performance was on the evening of release, at the closing day of Spotify's three-day DIVE Academy event at Ark Gangnam in Seoul. DIVE is the name of IVE's fandom.
In their words
"A small cheer extended to someone can become courage for someone else," Wonyoung said in an agency Q&A. "We wanted to convey the story that we can all be heroes to one another."
Liz said she wanted listeners to come away thinking, "As expected of IVE."
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The year behind it
IVE have just finished their second world tour, SHOW WHAT I AM, which began in October last year and has now wrapped up. Starship says every show at Japan's Kyocera Dome and Tokyo Dome sold out, and the North American leg grew from six cities to eight.
A crowded Monday
The mini album will not be alone on 26 October. ILLIT release their fifth mini album, BREAK EVEN, the same evening through BELIFT LAB, with four songs led by "You're Under Arrest". SM Entertainment's RIIZE put out a prologue single that day too, ahead of a second full-length album next spring.
All three releases are timed for 6 pm KST, which is 2.30 pm IST.
(Source: Starship Entertainment announcement and Q&A, Yonhap, BELIFT LAB announcement)
