GOLD

The record

GOLD is ITZY’s ninth mini album, released on 15 October 2024 with eleven tracks. For the first time since the group’s debut it carries two title tracks, ‘GOLD’ and ‘Imaginary Friend’. It came nine months after BORN TO BE.

The album introduction on Bugs gives the record’s theme as “Our World is still different”. The same text describes ‘GOLD’ as a crossover of rock electric guitar with 808-bass hip-hop, and ‘Imaginary Friend’ as a pop-dance song built on vintage pop guitar and acoustic band sound under vocal harmony. By that introduction the record also carries ‘FIVE’, a fan song for the group’s fifth anniversary, and ‘VAY’, which Changbin of Stray Kids worked on and features on, plus final versions of five songs from the previous record sung by all five members. Ryan Jhun, Dem Jointz, Jo Yun-kyung and Bang Hye-hyeon are among the credits.

Reviews

AllMusic’s Matt Collar described the record as one that “features a mix of new songs and re-recorded tracks off the same year’s Born to Be”. Of the new material he wrote: “Also showcased on the EP are their newly minted quintet songs, including the swaggering, hip-hop-infused ‘Gold,’ the dusky electro-club anthem ‘Imaginary Friend,’ the shimmering, ’90s R&B/dance number ‘Supernatural,’ and the particularly symbolic ‘Five.’”

His closing line: “More than just a companion album, Gold is the sound of ITZY reunited, celebrating their past and future.”

On 6 December 2024 Billboard placed the second title track, ‘Imaginary Friend’, at number 14 on its staff list of the twenty-five best K-pop songs of that year. The note is signed with initials only, so its writer cannot be named.

Among the tracks

‘Imaginary Friend’ is the song that note is about. Billboard opened it with the line that “pop music is meant to be escapist”, and went on: “It usually won’t tell you that point blank, though ITZY has always reveled in being different.”

Of the song itself: “‘I was born inside your head,’ Lia sings over guitar plucks on their gorgeous, ghostly single ‘Imaginary Friend,’ which casts fantasy as a protective shield against a world on fire: ‘When there’s monsters on your ceiling / I’ll keep you safe so you can dream.’” The closing sentence: “The girls sidestep confident roars for a softer register, yet their signature self-empowerment is still there: in the end, that courage you’re searching for will come from within.”

AllMusic names the first title track ‘GOLD’ alongside ‘Supernatural’ and ‘FIVE’. The album introduction records ‘FIVE’ as a fan song marking five years since the group’s debut.

Around it

The album introduction says the record’s trailer and teaser images carried its message — that the group are still different and will go on being so — across several pieces of visual content. By the same text ITZY spent that year on their second world tour, named after BORN TO BE, playing 32 shows across 28 places.

By the upload record on JYP Entertainment’s official channel, the music video for the second title track ‘Imaginary Friend’ went up on 27 October, twelve days after the record itself.