An Ode

The record

An Ode is SEVENTEEN’s third full-length album, released on 16 September 2019 with eleven tracks. The title track is ‘Fear’, and ‘HIT’, put out in August, opens the record. The Korea Herald reported on the day of release that Woozi said at the showcase: “The track brings out Seventeen’s darkest side that has not been shown before, describing internal fear as poison.” In the same report S.Coups said: “We love tackling challenges and new adventure. … This new album personifies who we are right now rather than defining the future direction of our music.”

Reviews

Billboard placed the record first in ‘The 25 Best K-pop Albums of 2019: Critics’ Picks’, published on 31 December 2019. The entry reads the album as the conclusion of several years’ work: “After starting out their career making a name for themselves with one bright and fresh hit after another, Seventeen have spent much of the past two years sorting out what it means to be a boy band maturing away from its original musical styling.” It calls An Ode “the culmination of that, as a pristinely-produced 11-track LP that spends its time showcasing the group’s distinct artistry while showing that they haven’t left their youthful, playful past behind wholly but have grown into their own sonically”.

The same entry follows the record’s shape front to back. It opens “with the promise of sharing their rambunctious ‘Hit’ sound with the world in the straight up banger of an opening track”, after which “the poetic nature of An Ode begins with the melodious ‘Lie Again,’ which leads to the drama of the introspective lead single ‘Fear.’” The back half is where the units take their turns. Billboard closed: “An Ode may be aimed at listeners but it is truly an homage to Seventeen’s thoughts and artistry, and showed us all how to remain earnest to an identity while still evolving.”

Among the tracks

‘HIT’ arrived a month and a half before the album, in August 2019. The Korea Herald’s Kwon Yae-rim placed it tenth when she ranked SEVENTEEN’s thirty best songs in July 2020, writing that “powered by explosive EDM synths and thumping rhythms, ‘Hit’ includes a dance breakdown and chanting chorus that makes it a true hit”.

Kwon placed the title track eleventh, writing that “this track takes on a darker theme, as the members express how they fear being a toxic influence to those they love”. Among the unit songs Billboard singled out ‘247’ and ‘Network Love’: the performance team’s ‘247’ for its “atmospheric rhythmic ballad feels”, and ‘Network Love’, on which the group’s members from outside Korea team up, as a “funky standout, which takes a few groovy moments to explore what it means to be in relationships in the digital age”.

Numbers

Billboard ranked the record first among the twenty-five K-pop albums on its list of 31 December 2019. Two of its songs reached The Korea Herald’s thirty-song ranking of July 2020 — ‘HIT’ at tenth and ‘Fear’ at eleventh. The closing ‘Happy Ending (Korean Ver.)’ is the Korean version of a single the group had already released in Japan, as the same Billboard entry notes.