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

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

(third overall) by

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

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

Beast Beast most often refers to: * Animal, a multicellular, eukaryotic organism in the biological kingdom Animalia * The Beast (Revelation), one of three beasts described in the Book of Revelation * Monster, a type of creature found in fiction, folklo ...

. 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 (; born Yong Jae-soon, December 19, 1989), known mononymously as Junhyung, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Junhyung rose to fame as a member of South Korean boy band Highlight (formerly known as Be ...

, 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?" () 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 on ...

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 ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' 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 A ...

. 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

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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 is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a tradit ...

''.

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 2010s Korean-language albums