TEN

The record

TEN is Ten’s first mini album, released on 13 February 2024 with six tracks. The title track is ‘Nightwalker’. It is his solo debut, and he named it after himself.

SM Entertainment’s album introduction on Bugs says all six songs are in English, and notes the solo tracks he had released before it — ‘Birthday’, ‘Paint Me Naked’ and ‘New Heroes’. The same text describes the title track as pop-dance built from a rhythmic beat, a bass of odd atmosphere and a guitar riff, with a synth bass in the chorus that raises the tension of the song. By that account ‘Water’ is Latin pop-dance that reworks an early-2000s sound, ‘Dangerous’ is pop-punk and ‘ON TEN’ is hip-hop, while ‘Shadow’ and ‘Lie With You’ hold, respectively, a monologue missing a parted lover and the whispering of two lying side by side.

Reviews

Kim Tae-hoon of IZM took the title track ‘Nightwalker’ as a single review in March 2024. Of the opening he wrote that “it catches the ear from the start with a synthesiser and bass line carrying a grave air”, and of the construction that “the guitar riff that slips deftly between the parts, and the dynamic beat, tie the irregular structure together naturally”. On where the vocal sits he wrote that “Ten’s vocal style, clear and dreamlike at once, is fitted in well, and the song turns a science-fiction world into music as though exploring a cyberpunk world at midnight”.

Among the tracks

‘Nightwalker’ is the only song on the record with a music video, and it is the song Kim reviewed. The album introduction says its lyrics hold being drawn toward someone one cannot refuse.

The same text describes the second track ‘Water’ as a song about wanting someone whose appeal it likens to water, and ‘ON TEN’ as a song carrying confidence in himself and his crew. The closing track ‘Lie With You’ puts the words two lovers whisper lying side by side into its lyrics and builds its mood on a guitar sound, by the same account.

Numbers

What records this album’s showing is the introduction to the second mini album STUNNER, released 13 months later. That text says TEN reached number one on the iTunes Top Albums chart in 28 territories, number one on the iTunes Worldwide Albums chart and number one on the QQ Music digital album sales chart.

Around it

The music video went up on the official SMTOWN channel on the day of release. Ten followed the record with his second mini album STUNNER on 24 March 2025.