EXO RETURNS WITH 7TH ALBUM “EXIST” | COMEBACK CORNER
BY BRENESSA ROACH | JULY 10
Tonight at 6PM KST, SM Entertainment’s South Korean pop group EXO released their seventh full-length album EXIST. This is the group’s first full-length album since Obsession in 2019. This is also their first comeback in a while with all active members; Baekhyun, Xuimin, Chanyeol, D.O, Kai, Sehun, Chen and Suho. However, Kai is currently enlisted in the South Korean military so, he unfortunately is not in the “Cream Soda” music video.
EXIST consists of 9 songs, 7 that released today and two that were pre-release tracks. In this article, we will review each song.
“Cream Soda” is the lead single on EXIST and is a dance-pop song. The song has a brass-heavy production, blended with the member’s sensual and light vocals. The lyrics are comparing cream soda to the adrenaline and refreshing feeling of falling in love with someone. The accompanying music video dropped at 6PM KST with the album and in just 5 hours, it already has over 1.8 million streams.
The music video is bright and has a rich feeling to it due to the set design. It might be odd to say, but the music video really resembles cream soda in the way that the colours and bubbly feeling is very obvious throughout the music video.
Listen to “Cream Soda” by EXO on Spotify:
“Regret It” is one of the more Hip-Hop songs on this album. This song has a very youthful feel from the production to the vocal style of each member. Additionally, the song reminds me of the style that SM Entertainment’s other group NCT has, which makes sense because this song was produced by Dem Jointz, who often works with NCT.
Listen to “Regret It” by EXO on Spotify:
“Hear Me Out” is one of the pre-release tracks for this album. It originally came out on June 30th with an accompanying music video. The song itself on Spotify has over 4 million streams and the music video has over 6.6 million views on YouTube. Additionally, this song charted on iTunes Top Song Chart in 37 regions all over the world (Source: hellokpop).
“Hear Me Out” is one of our favourite songs on the album as it is an R&B song with an old-school vibe. The song also has a general message of someone opening their heart for love and trying to convey a message to their partner who is hesitant to this love.
Listen to “Hear Me Out” by EXO on Spotify:
“Private Party” is another song that is a hip-hop style song that reminds us of NCT’s music. We think this song is definitely going to be one of their most popular songs on this album because it’s so upbeat and catchy. Also, the vocal ad-libs and range of some members is amazing and really complete the song.
Listen to “Private Party” by EXO on Spotify:
“Cinderella” is definitely in our top 5 songs for this album. This is one of their best songs in our opinion because it’s so catchy with the chorus. The production is so nice because of the hip-hop/upbeat vibes at the beginning of the song and the bridge is in a half-time tempo which adds an R&B feel to it. The members vocal styles and range are really shown well in this song. Baekhyun’s vocals are so distinct in this song as this kind of style is similar to his solo music. Even though there is no music video for this song, we can picture a majestic setting that would remind us of the movie or character Cinderella.
Listen to “Cinderella” by EXO on Spotify:
“No Makeup” is another R&B heavy track that has such a sweet tone. This song specifically reminded us a lot of ‘90s R&B boyband songs, especially at the chorus part. This is another song we love because it has a nostalgic feel to it and each members vocal style is able to be heard.
Listen to “No Makeup” by EXO on Spotify:
“Love Fool” is a pop style song as the production style has that pop piano chords. The song is very bright and has a youthful feel. This song reminds us a lot of EXO’s music from 2018-2019 and it’s very nostalgic. This is also a song that we absolutely love. The drill/siren beat with the members rapping adds a hip-hop style and we think it blends well with the pop.
Listen to “Love Fool” by EXO on Spotify:
“Another Day” is an R&B track with a funky synthesizer layered underneath. This song is very Kai like in the sense that it’s a song that you would listen to on Kai’s solo albums. Again, this is another song that is very up our alley because we love R&B style music here at Behind The Beat. This song has a very happy, sunshine feel to it too.
Listen to “Another Day” by EXO on Spotify:
“Let Me In” was the first pre-release track for EXIST. It came out on June 12th with an accompanying music video. The song on Spotify has almost 13 million streams and the music video has over 11.1 million views. This song is another R&B style song and definitely was a strong song to release before the album. This song set the overall tone for EXO’s new era – which is a bit more sexier and sensual than previous albums.
This song overall is talking about wanting to be let in for an embrace and enjoying the comfort of that other person. The instrumentation is slow, but the song still has a beat to it that allows the listener to vibe to.
Listen to “Let Me In” by EXO on Spotify:
Overall, EXIST opened a new era for EXO and we can’t explain our excitement for this. We will be streaming this album for the rest of the month and year, and hopefully you will be too.