BOYNEXTDOOR has just released their first studio album HOME! This album has been an incredible labor of love from the members and I really really enjoyed how much they shared their feelings and process leading up to the release, through the various lives, interviews, and the documentary ‘HOME VIDEO’ they released on YouTube.

I thought it would be nice to share some of the snippets that touched me, and hope that this post might encourage some non-fans to check out the album, and also help out any fans who haven’t been as deeply online as me haha. I also wrote a bit about each song! I can’t wait to hear more from the members during this promotion period I’m sure we’ll get many more stories.

The Meaning of HOME

Where is our home? I thought… maybe… it’s a place where time stops for a moment.

– BOYNEXTDOOR Film Essay : Finding HOME

[to be able to say] “I saw everyone’s eyes filled with happiness today”

– Sungho, about his members on the meaning of home, EP.2 of HOME VIDEO documentary

In a Weverse Live discussing the Film essay, Sungho summarizes

S: Home is not really about a physical space, […] in the end, home is the emotional resting place where we can briefly stop and find comfort. A sanctuary for the heart.

These weeks leading up to the release BOYNEXTDOOR talks about how this studio album HOME is the “end of Chapter 1 and a peek into Chapter 2”, and how it has become their home. From a live stream they did on the show Looksam, Jaehyun explained

J: The reason this album really became “our home” is because when we first started making it, the members had this conversation together: “If ten years pass or twenty years pass, and one day any of us starts losing our original mindset, let’s make an album we can return to and say: ‘listen to this album!’” We wanted to make an album that would become like our own beginning, an album that holds our original heart and intentions.

Another snippet from the same stream about some of the themes in the album (Jaehyun and then Woonhak)

J: Me, and the inner self within me. And also our members beside me, the people who listen to our music, and the people and memories we have loved while living our lives.. all of those things were expressed through music in this album
W: For people who love youth.

More about youth from a Weverse Live Woonhak had (also FYI they’ve mentioned before that “youth” isn’t about age but mindset):

W: I wanted to show you every room, every corner of the rooms inside our hearts. Without any hesitation or barriers between us. Because I always hope that the youth we are living through right now, the youth we are passing through together hand in hand, will be meaningful in a way that surpasses anything else. I hope the youth that BOYNEXTDOOR and ONEDOOR share together becomes the most meaningful youth of all. The most memorable. The one with the deepest story behind it.

And from EP. 3 of the HOME VIDEO documentary, Woonhak mentions

W: If you listen to the album… We wanted everyone who loves K-pop to feel what made us fall in love with it as kids

(Note: this is the first time that we’ve gotten a majority 3min+ run-time songs in one of their albums–I think it’s heavily due to the influence of this inspiration of K-pop from their childhood.)

This also was the first time all members participated in writing and composing; 4 of the songs (06070, Forever You, I Wonder, and I Wonder, Always) are credited to BOYNEXTDOOR as a whole. In EP.1 of the HOME VIDEO documentary, Sungho, who’s participating for the first time, reflects

S: Usually, when we make an album, Taesan, Woonhak, or Jaehyun ask us, “What do you want to do?” or “What genre do you want to try?” The producers also ask us “What do you think?” But there were almost no songs that reflected my own thoughts or let me sing from my own emotions
T: Almost none
[…]
S: Looking into my own thoughts and going through the process of thinking “This is what I want to say to people” made me realize “This is why I wanted to do this” […] the reason we chose to make music in the first place was because we wanted to express things create something creatively and share our thoughts with other people.

Jaehyun also added

J: We can’t always tell the stories all six of us want to tell. So maybe an album made of the stories all six of us wanted to tell and filled with such honest thoughts will never come out again.

And the original producing line (Jaehyun, Taesan, and Woonhak) go on to talk about how much they appreciated the new perspectives and fresh ideas and lyrics with the additional inputs of the other members, as they had started to feel burnt out (Leehan has helped out with writing starting in No Genre, but this is the first time for Sungho and Riwoo!).

It was also very important to them that these songs that had all of their input were credited to BOYNEXTDOOR as a whole. Taesan, from the Weverse Live they did on their 3rd anniversary:

T: From the very beginning, for the songs we first started working on, we were like “instead of putting our individual names, let’s just put the team name because it looks cooler.”

Finally, this is a bit long, a snippet from a Weverse Live Jaehyun had about the album and how they’ve really become even more of a home to each other

J: I think there was something like this while we were making this album, we really tried to bring out things we’d normally hesitate to talk about. emotions we didn’t want to face ourselves, stories we wouldn’t usually say out loud.. We put a lot of effort into expressing those through the music. We felt that only by putting that level of honesty into the album, only by sharing stories that made us think, ‘Is it okay for us to talk about something this real?’ could we make the album truly sincere.
And we thought that if we did that, the people listening to it and watching us would be able to feel it too. That the album would be more convincing, and that they’d be able to feel just how much we were opening our hearts and reaching out to them. So that’s the mindset we had while working on it.
Honestly, that part was really difficult. It was probably the hardest part of making the album. We’d all get together to work on songs, and if we spent five hours working, we’d probably spend four of those hours just talking. Because of that, the members got so much closer while making this album.
We’d open up about our families, talk about things that happened when we were younger, talk about the hardest things I experienced while working part-time jobs, talk about why I almost gave up on music…We shared all of those things among the members and became incredibly close. That’s why we keep saying we really hope this album does well.

(cr. @so0nagi and @myungjaey on Twitter for these transcriptions + translations! (in addition to official subtitles))

Now onto the individual songs!

1. 06070

When this title was first revealed, my TL was split into 67 jokes and fans crying once they figured out what these numbers represented. 06070 is the postal code of the old KOZ building, before they were acquired by HYBE and where BOYNEXTDOOR’s trainee lives were centered (most of them joined before KOZ was part of HYBE). This song is their starting point, with writing credits to every member of BOYNEXTDOOR. The song starts from the POV of Jaehyun at age 20 (well, 18 international age haha), the last member to join (Woonhak suggested this writing choice “we weren’t BOYNEXTDOOR until you joined”). He was ready to give up on idol life after years of training at another company. Jaehyun recalls breaking dishes during a part-time job while seeing a friend who debuted on the TV and deciding to throw away his dream. He also shouts out “Those who didn’t give up on me even when I gave up on myself”. In the documentary, Jaehyun reveals there was a team leader that kept calling him to try for KOZ despite his insistent refusal. The bitter determination grinding their teeth to debut, until the outro, where Woonhak parallels Jaehyun at age 20 with the excitement going on their first stage to debut. Link to their performance during the comeback showcase.

1. VIRAL (Title)

EP.3 of the documentary focuses on VIRAL, their title track. As the lyrics say: “Are you listening to this, thinking it’s just another ordinary love song?” On the surface, it’s another song of the genre they do best: a love song from a slightly pathetic man holding on to a former love (quick note if you haven’t been paying attention to their lyrics: they’ve got many LOSERNEXTDOOR songs, but even their refreshing-sounding Korean hit, IF I SAY, I LOVE YOU, the chorus translates to “Just for today, if I say I love you” from the perspective of someone who’s been broken up with but despite that pathetically still wants to say that he loves them). This song must go viral so that their ex can hear them and come back.

But really, this is a song about “performances, recognition, and ambition”. “We really wanted a song that reflects how desperate we are. We didn’t mind laying everything bare” (Woonhak in EP.3). The song carries the hopes that their music will echo in far and reach the ears of many. This song has an intro, outro, bridge, dance break, high note highlight–really showing off that older K-pop influence. While BOYNEXTDOOR is known more for their expressive individual dancing, they were thirsty to show off their growth and ability to do razor-sharp choreo, much like the seniors they look up to, so they picked up headmics for the first time. Here’s a link to their stage from the comeback showcase!

1. ddok ddok ddok

The pre-release track! Fans opinions were split since it wasn’t quite the same vibe as most of their discography, but it’s one of my top 5 BND tracks (pre-HOME release, not sure where it’ll stand after this haha). Given their mentee relationship with Zico and their love of hip-hop, it didn’t surprise me that they’d come out with a hard-hitting hip-hop song and pull it off so well. I love how the doorbell sound (which they got permission/rights for from the Korean doorbell company) incorporates into the beat at the beginning. Jaehyun’s verse is so charismatic and the outro! They mixed in English, Chinese, and Japanese to say the iconic “Who’s There” of their greeting and then they shout out all their previous albums. Apparently while working on the outro, Woonhak talked about how hip-hop often has bragging/flexing, but he felt like they didn’t have anything to show off, but proudly Jaehyun suggested their albums, which as part of the original writing/producing line, is definitely something to brag about. This bold declaration of their presence is gonna be so fun to shout and feels like a perfect concert opener and I can’t wait to see it live.

1. ADIOS!

ADIOS! was inspired by the feelings they had while having frustrating days and success not meeting their hopes after debut, feeling like nothing was going their way. ADIOS is an upbeat track saying goodbye to those feelings and that this too shall pass. “Youth passes. Pain passes too. What’s left behind is a lingering sense of regret. Even that too passes.” This song is fighting with the CD Only song as my favorite at the moment. Sonically, it reminds me of Crooked–fun, anthemic. It also has a really fun stage–some of my favorite BOYNEXTDOOR performances are those that feel like a musical. Check it out here!

1. Upside Down

Upside down is about escaping from a stifling reality to dance and sing. A fun tidbits–the lyric “Upside down, turn it around, even wear jeans inside out” is a reference to a fashion choice Jaehyun had when he first came to KOZ. Jaehyun also has a rapid fire rap section (I think maybe the fastest in any song so far?). Just a really fun song and I really want to see them perform it!

1. DIVE

RnBNEXTDOOR returns for DIVE, another love song. It’s a song about the dizzying feeling of falling in love, even to the point of needing CPR. Don’t have too much to say but really enjoy their sweet vocals and rap!

1. Forever You

This song is another full BOYNEXTDOOR credited-song. One of the first thoughts related to the theme of Home is family. As revealed in an interview with SWTV News, this song was sparked from a question Woonhak brought up. “If this meal with your parents right now were your last, how would you feel?” Filled with personal letters for their family, they apparently cried during recording.

The song includes a letter to Woonhak’s grandfather. During their debut year, Woonhak’s grandfather passed, without having the opportunity to watch him on the stage. BOYNEXTDOOR was abroad for a performance and Woonhak learned the news right before going on stage. As he mentions in an interview with MHN, when this song was completed, Woonhak went to his grandfather’s columbarium and played it for him and shed a lot of tears.

I also really like Taesan’s outro:

The babbling sounds I made as a child have turned into songs
Now, they become a confession for my mother.
The stumbling steps of my first walk have become a [bright] white stage,
Where I dance for my father.

1. I Wonder

ONEDOOR = Wonder. This is the first fan song, again with BOYNEXTDOOR full credits. I like how the song starts with a reference to one of their debut songs, Serenade. Just a really cute song.

1. I Wonder, Always (CD Only)

Why CD Only? As Jaehyun replied on Weverse, “It’s something that we wish only ONEDOOR know”. A 6 minute song that samples the chorus of I Wonder, this fan song might be my favorite song on the album. I was pleasantly surprised that it was so upbeat based off the premise haha. This song is filled with BOYNEXTDOOR’s deepest stories and honest emotions. They express some of their “ugliest” thoughts–feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, anxiety, and parts of themselves they have learned to love thanks to ONEDOOR. There’s even a reference to one of Taesan’s self-written pre-debut song “I Keep Thinking About You”. Jaehyun explained some of his lyrics in a livestream today: “1101 is just a number, but now it’s forever”. 1 and 0 make 영원 (Forever – yongwon – yong for zero and won for one) and 11/01 is the day the ONEDOOR fandom name was announced. “It’s only made of two numbers but it became my Forever.”

“This is why the album ends with a song for our fans. In the end, it made us realize ‘This is where are hearts truly find comfort’.” – Woonhak in an interview with Newsis

Some Closing Thoughts

Zico gave some perspective as a senior artist in EP. 2 of the documentary

Z: My first studio album wasn’t my highest-scoring album but it’s the one I treasure most. And I think this album will become your most cherished one too whether it succeeds or not. The fact that you took all these bottled-up emotions and turned them into melodies and words already makes it incredibly special.

I don’t know how this album will do commercially, or what legacy it will have, but it already is so incredibly special to me. From day 1, BOYNEXTDOOR won my heart over with their sincerity and hard work. Yes, they’re incredibly talented, kind, and hilarious, but it’s the way they lay their hearts bare and just are so earnest and passionate about their craft that endears me to no end. They’ve built their discography and their fanbase brick by brick, into this Home with a very solid foundation. I’m incredibly proud of them. They have become a part of my home, and I hope maybe they can be part of yours too. IT MUST GO VIRAL!