''Hard to Love, How to Love'' is the second

studio 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 ...

(third overall) by

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

Beast. It was released on July 19, 2013 with the song "Shadow (Geurimja)" as promotional single. The entire album was produced by the member

Yong Jun-hyung Yong Jun-hyung (Hangul: 용준형; born Yong Jae-soon on December 19, 1989), commonly known as Junhyung, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. Junhyung rose to fame as a member of South Korean boy band Highli ...

, along with Kim Tae-joo. Two songs from the album, "Will You Be Alright?" and "I'm Sorry", were released as digital singles as a preview for it.

Background

On May 27, 2013, the CEO of

Cube Entertainment Cube Entertainment Inc. () is a South Korean entertainment company. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company, and music publishing house. Cube are known for h ...

, Hong Seung-seong, revealed some details about Beast's upcoming album release: ″''It's now time for me to show you the three big pictures we′ve drawn regarding Beast's comeback. Thanks to the Beast members and their efforts to put together a puzzle that will make everyone supporting them happy, Beast has confirmed a comeback date in July.''″ The CEO also said, ″''Beast's upcoming album, to be released in July, will be performed for the first time onstage at B2ST's exclusive concert to be held in the same month. Their music, which shines more brilliantly onstage, will kick off with a concert so that B2UTYs will be the ones to see it first. Many passionate debates, designs and fun ideas have been thrown out regarding the comeback and are still going on, so make sure you don't let go of your anticipation.''″ On July 11, via Cube Entertainment's

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account, the label revealed the album's name, titled ''Hard to Love, How to Love'', and the release date, July 19. A day later, on July 12, the label announced the promotional track of the album, titled "Shadow" ( ), and a promotional photo. On July 15, the label posted on their

and

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accounts solo teaser photos from each member of the group, starting with Doo-joon and finishing with Dong-woon. It was also revealed the album's track list, composed by eight tracks.

Release

On May 29, 2013, a digital single, "Will You Be Okay?" (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: ) was released, and a special video of the song was uploaded to Beast's official YouTube account. The song went to number 1 on the

Gaon Digital Chart The Circle Digital Chart, previously known as the Gaon Digital Chart, is the music industry standard record chart ranking the 200 most popular singles in South Korea. It provides rankings on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, which is based o ...

and the ''Billboard'' K-pop Hot 100. A second song, "I'm Sorry", was released digitally on June 15 and also placed on both charts. Both songs were included on the upcoming album. ''Hard to Love, How to Love'' was released in Korea on July 19, 2013. It reached number 1 on South Korea's Gaon physical sales chart, Beast's first song to do so, and number 6 on the ''

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'' World Albums chart. A Japanese edition of the album was released in Japan on October 30, 2013, and peaked at number 18 on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon Albu ...

. It contained the same material as the Korean edition but also included a Japanese-language version of "Shadow". The Korean music video for "Shadow" was released on the group's official

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account on July 19, 2013. The song reached number 2 on the Gaon Digital Chart and number 3 on the Billboard K-pop Hot 100.

Critical reception

Jeff Benjamin of

described ''Hard to Love, How to Love'' ultimately as balanced. He praised the impressive vocals on "Will You Be Okay?" and the range of notes sounded on "I'm Sorry". He calls "Shadow" the album's centerpiece, with its "aggressive, piano-laden electro-pop beat" and elements reminiscent of their earlier song, "Fiction" from 2011's ''

Fiction and Fact ''Fiction and Fact'' is the first studio album by South Korean boy band Beast. It was released on May 17, 2011 by Cube Entertainment and contains 10 songs, including the singles "On Rainy Days" and "Fiction". The album peaked at number one on t ...

''.

Composition

The album is composed by eight tracks, four new songs, an

intro Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

, an outro and two already-released singles. All songs from the album were written and produced by Kim Tae-joo and Beast member

. The album's cover art was created by Kim Do-ho.

Track listing

Personnel

* Hong Seung-seong - executive producer * Shin Jeong-hwa - executive producer * Park Choong-min - executive supervisor * No Hyeon-tae - executive director * Yong Jun-hyung - music producer * Kim Tae-joo - music producer * Im Sang-hyeok - production director * Seo Jae-woo - music supervisor * Jeong Ra-young - A&R * Shin Jae-bin - recording engineer, mixing engineer (Cube Studio) * Jeong Bu-yeon - recording engineer (Cube Studio) * Jo-ssi ajeossi - mixing engineer (Cube Studio) * Go Seung-wook - mixing engineer (Bono Studio) * Choi Hyo-young - mastering engineer (Suono Mastering Studio)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hard to Love, How to Love) Cube Entertainment albums 2013 albums Dance-pop albums by South Korean artists Highlight (band) albums Korean-language albums