ENHYPEN refuse to conform and take charge of their new future in Manifesto: Day 1 – Album Review

By Nandini Iyengar -

July 11, 2022 - 4:18 PM IST

South Korean rising stars ENHYPEN [Jungwon, Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, and Ni-ki] made a stunning comeback with the mini-album Manifesto: Day 1. This mini-album is the group's third one, preceded by Dimension: Answer which was released in January earlier this year. The group’s latest mini-album contains 6 tracks, each different than the last. The album packs the usual ENHYPEN's flavour with a wild dash of new genres such as Chicago Drill rap. According to Hanteo Chart, the album, which dropped on July 4, has already sold 1,241,112 copies between July 4 and 10, surpassing the 1 million mark on July 5.

ENHYPEN refuse to conform and take charge of their new future in Manifesto: Day 1 – Album Review

The album opens with the trilingual track ‘Walk the Line’. The members' alternate verses between English, Korean and Japanese. The song was first featured in the comeback trailer for this album and also shares its name with an intro for the group's debut album Border: Day One. The members sing about forging a new line for their future - "I who walked along the line, am now drawing the line / I will now draw a new world line/ And within that world."

One can assume that the music video of ‘Future Perfect (Pass the Mic)’ could have links to the group's webtoon Dark Moon: The Blood Altar. Letting go of the ‘hyphen’ tracks, this song truly kicks off a new era for the group. The horror-gothic theme does not stray for long as the group encounters five demons and has supernatural abilities in the second half of the music video. Using the tense 'Future Perfect', which is usually found in linguistics, the group aims to send a message of a promising future. The song uses the Chicago drill genre of music replete with synth-bass and trap sounds and expresses the group's desire to carve a new path with lyrics that go - "Bring out my real voice/ And draw our futurе / Shout out together/ That moment, that momеnt in our future perfect.”

With the third track, ‘ParadoXXX Invasion’ the group emanates a strong attitude defying the age-old rules and showing a change to the older generations - "A world of contradictions/We bump into each other again.” Member Jake participated in writing the lyrics, becoming the first member of the group to do so.

The next track ‘That Feeling When (TFW)’ is a soft romantic R&B track that speaks about budding love. Using modern terms like JPG, website, etc the group croons the fluttery emotions of love – “Look around, website/There's nothing like you, baby.” This song sits in line with the group's hit soft pop tracks like ‘Polaroid Love.’

The genre switches to old-school hip hop and rap with the fifth track ‘Shout Out’. There is nostalgia, but also happiness about a new start. The group exudes confidence as they proclaim themselves the new in charge of the new beginning – “Beyond the border line drawn by someone/ I shout out, and this is my shout out / I'm all for myself.”

The album concludes with the outro Foreshadow. Just like the intro, the outro also features trilingual narration and is accompanied by psychedelic beats and an atmospheric aura. The title does justice to the song as it captures the uncertainty and the pain that would soon follow - "I run after the shadows / Towards a new world that will reach the end of the shadow.”

ENHYPEN ushered in a new era with their mini-album. The septet ventured into new waters with genres like Chicago drill to show their versatility and comfort in experimenting with new music genres. The group also stepped actively into the other sections of music like songwriting and composing. With just 6 tracks, the album packs a promising storyline for forthcoming music as they refuse to conform and are ready to take on new challenges. The group has forged a new path in the story and their musical journey with this album. With member Jake participating in co-writing a song, it sure gives hope to see more members participate in the song-making process.