''Awaken'' is the first full-length Japanese

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

(second overall) by South Korean boy band

NCT 127 NCT 127 () is the first fixed and second overall sub-unit of the South Korean boy band NCT, formed and managed by SM Entertainment. The current lineup consists of nine active members: Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Jungwoo ...

, the second multi-national sub-unit of NCT. Released by their Japanese label Avex Trax on April 17, 2019, the album was the second major release for the Japanese market from the group and their first to not feature Winwin, who was on a hiatus due to his participation in WayV's promotion.

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies where it was established in 1995 by record executive and record producer Lee Soo-man. The company ha ...

's founder

Lee Soo-man Lee Soo-man (, born 18 June 1952) is a South Korean business executive and record producer who is best known for being the founder of SM Entertainment, a multinational South Korean entertainment company based in Seoul. He has also been referred ...

served as the album's

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

, with lyrical and musical composition contributed by

Andreas Öberg Andreas Öberg (born 6 August 1978) is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, and music producer. Music career Öberg was born in Stockholm on 6 August 1978. When he was seven, he took classical guitar lessons at school. He played electric guitar wh ...

, Sebastian Thott, David Amber, Jung Youth, Tony Esterly, Jonny Shorr,

LDN Noise LDN Noise (pronounced ''London Noise'') is a British songwriting and record production duo based in London, England. Consisting of songwriter Greg Bonnick and DJ Hayden Chapman, the duo has worked with artists such as Nathan Sykes, Nick Jonas ...

, Deez, Adrian Mckinnon, Mike Daley,

Yoo Young-jin Yoo Young-jin is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer and vocal trainer under SM Entertainment. He has produced and written songs for H.O.T., S.E.S, BoA, Shinhwa, TVXQ, CSJH The Grace, Super Junior, Girls' Generation, Shinee, ...

Harvey Mason Jr. Harvey Jay Mason Jr. (born June 3, 1968) is an American record producer, songwriter, movie producer and current CEO of The Recording Academy. He has written and produced songs for artists including Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Deniece Wil ...

Dem Jointz Dwayne Allen Abernathy Jr. (born July 17, 1976), better known by his stage name Dem Jointz, is an American record producer. He has produced tracks for numerous artists including Rihanna, Anderson .Paak, and NCT, among others. He also co-prod ...

, MEG.ME and others. A hip-hop and R&B-heavily dominant record, ''Awaken'' contains songs corporating elements from pop and

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

music, performing in Japanese, Korean and English in order to "continue" the story from their first Japanese

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

Chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

'' (2018). Upon its release, the album debuted at number four on the Oricon Weekly Albums chart with 53,042 copies sold in its first week of its release, as well as at number 14 on the Oricon Weekly Digital Albums chart with 978 downloads, becoming the group's third top five entry on the former chart. To promote the album, NCT 127 embarked on their first Japan concert tour, titled ''Neo City – The Origin''. The album also spawned two singles prior to its release, namely the Japanese version of "

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

" on September 16, 2018 and "Wakey-Wakey" on March 19, 2019.

Background and release

After making their debut in the Japanese market with the

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

, ''

,'' in 2018, NCT 127 released their first Japanese studio album, ''Awaken,'' on April 17, 2019. It was released in fourteen versions: a limited CD+DVD edition that reverts to a regular edition once depleted, a limited CD+Blu-ray edition that reverts to a regular edition once depleted, and nine limited CD member editions that revert to a regular CD edition once depleted. All limited editions came with one trading card of nine types. The music video teaser for the lead single, "Wakey-Wakey", was released on March 17, 2019, and the full music video was released on March 18, 2019.

Promotion

It was announced in August 2018 that NCT 127 would embark on their first nationwide Japan tour, Neo City – The Origin, starting in Osaka on February 2, 2019, with a total of seven stops in Hiroshima, Kanazawa, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Saitama and Osaka.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NCT 127 NCT 127 albums Dance-pop albums by South Korean artists Hip hop albums by South Korean artists SM Entertainment albums Japanese-language albums Avex Group albums IRiver albums