GOLDEN

The record

GOLDEN is Jung Kook’s first solo album. Segye Ilbo reported ahead of release that it would arrive at 1 p.m. KST on 3 November 2023 with 11 tracks, among them the first official solo single ‘Seven (feat. Latto)’ from that July and the second single ‘3D (feat. Jack Harlow)’. The title track is ‘Standing Next to You’.

The album introduction describes a record built on the golden moments of Jung Kook as a solo artist. The same page says the running order follows the arc of a relationship: the front half is filled with bright songs about falling in love, and the back half with heavier ones about facing a parting. Andrew Watt and Cirkut, who made ‘Seven’, produced the title track, and Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, BloodPop, David Stewart and Blake Slatkin are credited on the songs.

Reviews

NME’s Rhian Daly, writing on the day of release, read the album as “a story of two halves”: on the first, “upbeat and light-hearted, Jungkook shares vignettes about falling in love and standing strong in a relationship”, while the second “charts much heavier feelings – those that come after suffering heartbreak and trying to make it through a break-up.” She closed that “For the most part, ‘Golden’ works and achieves exactly what its mission seemingly is”.

Maria Sherman of the Associated Press called it one of the strongest pop debuts of the year and a direct reflection of his love of retro-pop sounds. “Across this release, Jung Kook demonstrates a deep understanding of pop performance — and how, in the modern era, that requires innovative collaborations, heavily featured throughout his solo album,” she wrote. The Evening Standard’s David Smyth gave it four stars out of five: “A lot of boxes are ticked for pop lovers: Seven has the garage beats of Craig David, 3D has the slick funkiness of Timberlake’s solo debut, and elsewhere, as on Somebody and the DJ Snake collaboration Please Don’t Change, he maintains a smooth, classy dance sound.”

AllMusic’s Neil Z. Yeung wrote that “Golden takes aim at the mainstream sweet spot that swirls together funky beats, catchy melodies, and irresistible choruses.”

Among the tracks

The album introduction describes the title track ‘Standing Next to You’ as old-school disco funk read through a modern arrangement. The Associated Press put it first among the songs: “The greatest song, however, is the latest single: the funky, Michael Jackson-channeling ‘Standing Next to You’ may very well be one of the year’s most addictive pop singles.” Matt Young, writing for The Line of Best Fit, heard “deep bass synths and sparkly keys broken up with brassy accents”, a track “where disco and pop battle it out with the outcome bringing the best of both genres.” The music video was directed by Tanu Muino.

‘Seven’ and ‘3D’ were singles before they were tracks, and IZM reviewed each at the time. Lee Seung-won wrote of ‘Seven’ that its wholly pop direction meets what his voice as a main vocalist had promised and settles the question of whether he could sound distinct from his group. Three months later the same writer wrote of ‘3D’ that the record follows the pop template as before, and that the hip-hop rhythm added to it brings a little freshness.

Consequence’s Mary Siroky called ‘Closer to You’, with Major Lazer, “a dark, rich, reggaeton-inspired track” and a bright spot near the top of the record, and described ‘Yes or No’, which Ed Sheeran plays guitar on, as “a bright, easy offering”.

Numbers

Star News reported on 9 August 2026 that ‘Seven’ had entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number one and stayed on that chart for 15 weeks. Nearly three years after release the song was still charting: the same piece recorded a 159th week on Billboard’s Global excluding US chart and a 157th week on Spotify’s weekly global chart, and reported 146 consecutive weeks for the album itself on Spotify. The Associated Press reported that ‘3D’ reached number five on the same Hot 100.