5-Star (stylized as ★★★★★) is the third Korean-language studio album (fourth overall) by South Korean boy band
Stray Kids. It was released on June 2, 2023, through
JYP Entertainment and
Republic Records, following their seventh EP Maxident (2022). A combination of
hip hop,
pop, and
electronica elements, 5-Star lyrically addresses themes of uniqueness, confidence, and aspirations.
On the album,
3Racha worked with songwriters and producers Versachoi, Chae Kang-hae, Restart, Zack Djurich, Millionboy, Trippy, Nickko Young, Kyle Reynolds,
Chris LaRocca, and Jun2, as well as member Felix. It comprises twelve tracks, including the lead single "
S-Class", the Korean version of "
The Sound", originally from the group's
Japanese album of the same name and "
Mixtape: Time Out" from the Mixtape Project, and features a guest appearance from
Tiger JK on the track "Topline".
5-Star generally received generally positive reviews from music critics. Commercially, the album peaked at number one in South Korea, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, and the United States. It was certified quintuple million by
Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), and gold in France, Poland, and the United States, and became the second global best-selling album in 2023, according to the
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The album won Top K-Pop Album at the
2023 Billboard Music Awards, Artist of the Year – Album from
13th Circle Chart Music Awards, and Best Album (Bonsang) at the
38th Golden Disc Awards.
Background
Stray Kids' follow-up Korean-language album to Maxident was first mentioned in an interview with the news outlet The Fact in October 2022, after the group won the Artist of the Year (Bonsang) and Fan N Star Four Star Award at
The Fact Music Awards in 2022. Member Seungmin stated that they would return with an "amazing" album the following year, possibly including new sub-unit combinations and exploring new
music genres.[1] On New Year's Day in 2023, the group uploaded the video "Step Out 2023" to their social media, outlining their accomplishments in 2022 and plans for the new year, including two album releases.[2]
In early March 2023, Hankook Ilbo first reported that Stray Kids had already finished filming a music video for the new album's lead single and that it was scheduled for release in April.[3] On the same day,
JYP Entertainment subsequently confirmed the music video filming, although not the release date.[4]Financial analysts and researchers also estimated that the group's new album would come in the second quarter of 2023.[5][6][7] In late April, after the group concluded their
Maniac World Tour, SpoTV News reported that the group would release a new album in early June.[8] JYP Entertainment confirmed the news.[9] Titled 5-Star, the album was formally announced via a trailer on April 28, set to be released on June 2.[10] The title refers to the lead single "
S-Class", playing around two words "special" and "star".[11]
Music and lyrics
5-Star is 36 minutes and 35 seconds long, consisting of twelve tracks in the genres of
hip hop,
pop, and
electronica.[12][13]3Racha—an in-house production team of Stray Kids members Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han—wrote and produced all songs on the album. Other contributors include Versachoi, Chae Kang-hae, Restart, Zack Djurich, Millionboy, Trippy, Nickko Young, Kyle Reynolds, Chris LaRocca, and Jun2, as well as member Felix who participated in two tracks, "
Super Bowl" and "FNF". Korean-American rapper
Tiger JK features on and co-wrote the fifth track "Topline".[14] A "strange yet special" release, the album centered on the theme of the group's uniqueness, confidence, aspirations, and achieving their goal, based on their discourse of growth and identity.[15][11]
Songs
The opening track, "Hall of Fame", is a fusion of
R&B and
trap metal,[16] expressing Stray Kids' ambition to make their own history and engrave their names on the
hall of fame.[11] It includes lyrical references to American inventor and businessman
Thomas Edison and astronaut
Neil Armstrong, English playwright and poet
William Shakespeare and
theoretical physicistStephen Hawking, Italian astronomer and physicist
Galileo Galilei, and South Korean professional League of Legends player
Faker.[17] "S-Class" is a hip-hop track with elements of
boom bap,
old school, and pop,[18] expressing Stray Kids' confidence and "emphasiz[ing] their specialness",[19] and containing a message of being "the most eccentric among the unusual kids, and the brightest among the special kids".[20] "Item", a
video game-themed hip hop track,[16] displays their confidence of synergy and ability on [their] own without any special items.[11]
Originally titled "God's Menu" as their lead single from the first studio album Go Live (2020) and showed homage to
the American football championship game of the same name, "Super Bowl" compares Stray Kids' music as cooking and a food dish,[11] driven by
techno sound,[16] and including whispering in a manner similar to
ASMR.[21] "Topline" is a minimalistic boom bap, old-school and
East-Coast hip-hop track,[16] comparing their ambition to drawing a line on the top,[11] while "DLC", short for "Dance Like Crazy", is a
moombahton,
deep house, and
tropical house song with
Eurodance influences, driven by piano, flute-like synth, and brass.[16][22] The song expresses a feeling of leaving any worries behind and dancing like crazy.[23][11] "Get Lit", a mix of moombahton and
bounceEDM,[16] depicts an "escape from cramped daily life and dying today",[24] while "Collision" is a
jazzy R&B track featuring
saxophone sample,[22][16] conveying the theme of relationship conflict as the collision of two planets.[11]
A tribute to the
bushfire season from 2019 to 2020 in Australia, "FNF", shortened for "
flora and
fauna",[21] expresses a feeling of regret and longing felt by seeing animals and plants lose their lives due to the wildfire with EDM sound.[22][25] The piano-and-guitar
ballad, "Youtiful", a
portmanteau of "you" and "beautiful", talks about
self-esteem,[11] intending to show "warm and comfortable support and consolation" of how everyone is beautiful and amazing as they are.[26][16] "
The Sound" is an
electronic rock track,[27] depicting the group's confidence and attitude toward their music.[28] The album closes with "
Mixtape: Time Out", a
punk—
pop rock track, reminiscing about Stray Kids' trip to
Gangwon-do before beginning the promotion of their EP Oddinary.[29]
Release and promotion
On April 28, 2023, Stray Kids uploaded a three-minute trailer to announce 5-Star.[30] Based on Korean game I Am Ground, the trailer sees the members each introducing themselves with their chosen nickname in individual shots before uniting in the same scene.[31][32] Pre-orders of album opened on the same day as the trailer's release, being made available in five versions with 12 different covers: limited, standard A, B and C, and eight
digipacks.[33] The album's
Solar System-styled track listing,
constellation-styled scheduler, and digital cover artwork were posted to social media on April 30. The track listing confirmed "S-Class" as the
lead single, and included the Korean version of "The Sound", originally from their
Japanese album of the same name and the 2022 single "Mixtape: Time Out" from the Mixtape Project as part of the album.[34]
Prior to the release, the group teased snippets of five tracks of 5-Star via the series "Unveil: Track": "DLC",[35] "FNF",[36] "Get Lit",[37] "Topline",[38] and "Youtiful",[39] as well as the other tracks via the
live action-and-
comics-fusion
mashup video.[40]
The album's teaser photos were revealed in four sets. The first depicts the members wearing colorful outfits and posing in front of 1980s-styled backgrounds combining
Korean traditional art and everyday life items.[41][42] The second, alongside accompanying mood films, shows the melancholy-eyed members, wearing "mix-and-matched" outfits, posting on the street at night illuminated by street light.[43][44] The third expresses the members, wearing the same outfits as the trailer, posting with various music instruments and loudspeakers,[45] while the fourth shows the members in black clothes with the
vintage cars background, adding
oriental-styled "
kitsch" illustrations of
pine trees, clouds, tigers, and
cranes.[46]
5-Star was released on June 2, 2023, in conjunction with the music video for "S-Class",[47] preceded by two music video teasers.[48][49] The documentary series Intro "5-Star", consisting of three episodes, was released between June 1 and 11.[50] Starting on the release date, Stray Kids promoted the album and performed the lead single at several
music programs, such as Music Bank,[51][52]Show! Music Core,[53][54]Inkigayo,[55][56] and M Countdown.[57] To commemorate the release, Stray Kids partnered with Soundwave for launching a
pop-up store from June 3 to 18 at
Seongdong-gu, Seoul,[58] as well as launching SKZoo characters'
sticker set for
KakaoTalk on June 27.[59] Stray Kids' space-themed third fan meeting Pilot: For 5-Star supported the album, held at
KSPO Dome from July 1 to 2, which they previously specified as a mysterious "What's Next" on the promotional scheduler,[60] and debuted the performance of "Item".[61] The group headlined the
Lollapalooza music festival in
Paris on July 21, performing songs from 5-Star: "S-Class", "Topline", "Item", and "Super Bowl",[62] and embarked on their all-dome
concert tour5-Star Dome Tour in South Korea and Japan from August to October.[63]
South Korean
music critic Kim Do-heon praised the album as "a clever piece of work" and "a well-thought-out
K-popblockbuster", because of "the performance shown by the members who claim to be madmen, the spectacular production, and the mature narrative of growth."[66] Crystal Bell from NME awarded the album five out of five stars, writing that it "will make you feel like you arrived at a party that's already in full-swing. [...] 5-Star is disorienting in that way. But once your senses adapt to the frenzy and your body syncs to the rhythm, you lose yourself in its
luminescence."[22]
Writing for Ize, Kim Sung-dae revealed that he "does not want to give [5-Star] five stars as the title", and questioned, "Isn't it a blessing in some way that incompleteness can be a compliment?" He summarized that "to critics, five stars mean a perfect score, but to Stray Kids, 5-Star just means 'weird and brilliant.'"[15] Lee Jae-hoon of Newsis dubbed the album as a "K-pop adventure".[67]AllMusic's Neil Z. Young described that the album "wild ride[s] through genres and emotions," and "playing out like a hit to the head with a dozen anthems that only briefly allow for a breather."[64] Jeong Da-yeol from IZM commented the album "although the instrumental source and composition of each section with irregularities in the genre may take on a crude appearance, it took a familiar ride, arranged addictive repetitions, and hit the listeners' brains safely."[65]
On May 30, 2023, two days before the release, JYP Entertainment reported that 5-Star had exceeded 4.93 million pre-orders, and 5.13 million two days later.[79] It became the most pre-ordered release in
K-pop history, breaking the record of
Seventeen's FML (2023) with 4.64 million copies.[80] Later, it was surpassed by
Seventeen's EP Seventeenth Heaven in October.[81] According to the Hanteo Chart, the album sold 2,392,666 copies on its first day of release,[82] and later 4,617,499 in its first week, becoming
the fastest first-week selling album in South Korea, besting FML.[83]5-Star debuted at number one on the
Circle Album Chart for the issue dated May 28 – June 3, 2023, and topped for two consecutive weeks.[84] It sold 4,330,039 copies in its first week,[85] and 5,242,486 copies in June,[86] certified quintuple million by
Korea Music Content Association (KMCA).[87]
5-Star debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200 for the issue dated June 17, 2023, becoming the group's third entry and third consecutive number-one album in the United States. With 249,500
equivalent album units, it marks the fourth-largest week by any album released in 2023, including 235,000 pure album sales—231,000 CDs and 4,000 digital albums—the biggest sales week of 2023 and since
Taylor Swift's Midnights (2022), opened with over 1.1 million units. 5-Star is also the 19th overall non-English-language number-one album, and the third of 2023, following
Karol G's Mañana Será Bonito, and
Tomorrow X Together's The Name Chapter: Temptation.[88] It also topped the specific-genre
World Albums.[89] The album reached number 82 on the 2023 Billboard 200 year-end chart, the highest charted K-pop album in the year.[90]5-Star received
gold certification from
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 27, their first album to do so.[91]
^The IFPI Global Albums chart ranks, in order, the albums that generated the most money globally across streaming, download, and physical record sales (combined) in a calendar year. The Global Album Sales Chart measures global unit sales across all physical formats, as well as full album downloads.
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"세븐틴, 신보 선주문량 520만장 돌파...K-팝 역대 최고 기록 [공식]" [Seventeen's New Album Pre-Orders Exceed 5.2 Million Copies... Highest K-pop Record Ever [Official]]. Mydaily (in Korean). Retrieved October 23, 2023.
^Lee, Jae-hoon (June 3, 2023).
"스트레이 키즈 정규 3집, 첫날 판매량 239만장...역대 초동 4위" [Stray Kids' 3rd Studio Album, Sold 2.39 Million Copies on the First Day... 4th in All-time Initial Chodong]. Newsis (in Korean). Retrieved June 3, 2023.
^Jang, Seul-gi (June 9, 2023).
"스트레이키즈, 놀라운 음반 파워...'461만장' K팝 초동판매량 신기록" [Stray Kids, Amazing Album Power... '4.61 Million Copies' K-Pop Record in Initial Chodong Sales]. Raon News (in Korean). Retrieved June 9, 2023.
^Cheon, Seol-hwa (June 15, 2023).
"임영웅, 23주차 써클차트 5관왕" [Lim Young-woong, Won 5 Charts on the 23rd Week of Circle Chart]. Star Daily News (in Korean). Retrieved June 15, 2023.
^Park, Dong-sun (June 8, 2023).
"피프티피프티·아이브·에스파·임영웅, 5월 써클차트 정상...(여자)아이들·스키즈 주간 1위" [Fifty Fifty, IVE, aespa, Lim Young-woong Topped the Circle Chart in May... (G)I-DLE and Stray Kids Weekly Winner]. ETNews (in Korean). Retrieved June 8, 2023.
^Kim, Young-jin (July 7, 2023).
"(여자)아이들·스트레이 키즈·임영웅, 6월 써클차트서 활약...피프티 피프티도 '눈길'" [(G)I-DLE · Stray Kids · Lim Young-woong, Active on the Circle Chart in June... Fifty Fifty also 'Eyes Catching']. Asia Today (in Korean). Retrieved July 8, 2023.
^Kim, Min-ji (August 12, 2023).
"스트레이 키즈, 정규 3집 '파이브스타' 누적 판매량 500만 돌파" [Stray Kids, 3rd Full Album '5-Star' Surpasses 5 Million Cumulative Sales]. News1 (in Korean). Retrieved August 12, 2023.