NCT Dream Release Their First Studio Album ‘Hot Sauce’
On May 10, K-pop group NCT Dream released their full-length album Hot Sauce. The album signifies the band’s first studio album. It is also the first album released since Mark returned to NCT Dream in 2020.
There are seven members in NCT Dream
NCT Dream is a sub-unit of SM Entertainment’s K-pop group NCT. The band debuted in 2016 with seven members: Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung.
Originally, NCT Dream functioned on a graduation system. Based on the rules of the graduation system, the members would graduate from the sub-unit after turning 20 years old in Korea.
Because of this, Mark graduated from the group in 2018. In April 2020, SM Entertainment announced that after Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung had a comeback with the EP Reload, Mark would rejoin the group.
“First of all, following the release of NCT Dream’s new album on April 29, after these album promotions, there will be a change in the system of the members graduating after becoming 20-years-old. The current members will not graduate, and including original member Mark, the seven members will carry out activities in a format like NCT U with the team name NCT Dream,” SM Entertainment said in a statement according to Soompi.
NCT Dream released their first studio album
Hot Sauce consists of 10 tracks: “Hot Sauce,” “Diggity,” “Dive Into You,” “My Youth,” “Rocket,” “Countdown (3, 2, 1),” “ANL,” “Irreplaceable,” “Be There For You,” and “Rainbow.”
The lead single for the album is “Hot Sauce,” and the septet released a music video for the song on May 10. Before the album and music video for “Hot Sauce” were released, the members of NCT Dream held a press conference.
“The title track is ‘Hot Sauce,’ and we directly expressed our intention to show a true, intense, and hot taste. The song contains a message that we’re going to show NCT Dream’s unique charms, so please focus on the lyrics,” Jaemin said about the album’s title track according to Soompi.
At the press conference, the members also discussed what it was like to have Mark return to the group.
“When Mark left the group for a while, it felt like he was away for a different activity and that he was eventually coming back. Since the seven of us, who are very different from each other, came together, it feels like this album became stronger with NCT Dream’s style. Mark has always been a part of NCT Dream,” Renjun said according to Soompi.
What fans think of the music video for ‘Hot Sauce’
After the K-pop group released the album and the “Hot Sauce” music video, fans of the band published their reactions on social media. In their posts, fans praised the choreography in the “Hot Sauce” music video and the song’s experimental sound.
“I loved it! It was a very neo sounding song and also reminded me of Kokobop by Exo. Felt like every member had their chance to shine in this song too. Everyone did so well :))),” a fan wrote on Reddit.
“On first listen it was all so overwhelming, but after 2-3 listens, it’s just soooo addicting? Like I knew for sure that this song’s gonna be on repeat for days,” a Reddit user wrote about “Hot Sauce.”
