''Face the Sun'' is the fourth studio album by South Korean boy band
Seventeen. It was released on May 27, 2022 by
Pledis Entertainment through
YG Plus
YG Plus Inc. (previously named Phoenix Holdings Inc.) is a publicly traded media and advertising company acquired by YG Entertainment in November 2014. In 2019, the company entered the music distribution industry and also engages in production, d ...
. The album contains nine tracks, with "Hot" serving as lead single. The first track, "Darling", was pre-released on April 15, 2022. The repackaged version of the album, titled ''Sector 17'', released on July 18 alongside its lead single "World". The fourth track, "Cheers", was pre-released on July 7, 2022.
Background
In March, seven months after the release of the commercially successful EP ''
Attacca'',
Pledis Entertainment announced that
Seventeen would be releasing a studio album, their first since ''
An Ode
''An Ode'' is the third studio album by South Korean boy band Seventeen. It was released on September 16, 2019, through Pledis Entertainment. The album spawned two singles, "Hit" was released as the album's lead single on August 5, 2019, followed ...
'' (2019), in May. Following the release of the group's first-ever English single "Darling" on April 15, the label confirmed that Seventeen would return on May 27 with a fourth studio album titled ''Face the Sun''.
Starting on April 26, the group released "Inner Shadows", a 13-part trailer on YouTube to tease the new album.
Described by band member Hoshi as marking the "shedding
f theirformer image and becoming more mature", the album greatly contrasts with their earlier, more cheerful concepts.
Release and promotion
Pre-orders for the album opened on April 22.
On May 23, a highlight medley was released, as a preview of the 9 tracks of the album.
The album will be supported by the
'Be the Sun' World Tour, their first tour after the Ode to You Tour, which ended prematurely in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Be the Sun tour began in Seoul, followed by stops in North America and Asia.
Seventeen released a trailer for the reissue of the album, titled ''Sector 17'', at their concert in Seoul. ''Sector 17'' was released on July 18, 2022.
Commercial performance
''Face the Sun'' surpassed 1.74 million pre-orders in one week, exceeding Seventeen's previous career high of 1.41 million pre-orders for ''
Attacca''. On May 20, it was reported that the album had recorded two million pre-orders. According to the
Gaon Music Chart, the album sold 2,239,351 copies in the month of May. ''Face the Sun'' debuted at number seven on the US
''Billboard'' 200, earning 44,000
album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...
s, including 42,000 pure album sales, in its first week. It is Seventeen's highest-charting and first top-ten album on the chart, having previously reached the top 20 twice in 2021 with their EPs ''
Your Choice
''Your Choice'' is the eighth extended play (EP) by South Korean boy band Seventeen, released through Pledis Entertainment on June 18, 2021, eight months after its predecessor, ''Semicolon'' (2020). The album comprises six tracks of a variety of g ...
'' and ''Attacca''.
According to Hanteo, ''Sector 17'' sold 1,126,104 copies in its first week. Later it was reported that the EP sold 2 million copies in its first week, making Seventeen the second K-pop group to sell over 2 million copies in the first week of release.
Critical reception
In a positive review for ''
Teen Vogue'', Sara Delgado praised ''Face the Sun'' for its "sonic versatility." For ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'', Abby Webster gave ''Face the Sun'' four stars, and wrote that the album's singles paled in comparison to the album's "familiar yet sublimely inventive B-sides." Abbie Aitken for ''
Clash'' wrote that "''Face the Sun'' is a testament of Seventeen's influence as a key group within K-pop."
Accolades
Track listing
Notes
* "Darling" is stylized as "Darl+ing"
* "'Bout You" is stylized as "'bout you"
* "World" is stylized as "_WORLD"
Charts
Weekly charts
Monthly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{Seventeen (band)
2022 albums
Korean-language albums
Seventeen (South Korean band) albums
Hybe Corporation albums