Rock With SEVENTEEN’s 9th mini album “Attacca”

SEVENTEEN attacks the next stage of their career without pause

In February 2020, SEVENTEEN cancelled their “Ode to You” world tour for February and March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Despite the setback relating to their world tour, K-Pop boy group SEVENTEEN continued without a pause to declare their love to their fans, called “Carats,” through their ninth mini album, “Attacca.”

Released on Oct. 22, “Attacca” contains seven songs: “To you,” “Rock with you” (title track and MV), “Crush,” “PANG!”, “Imperfect Love,” “I Can’t Run Away” and “2 MINUS 1” (the group’s first all-English song).

Formed on May 26, 2015, Pledis Entertainment and HYBE-represented group SEVENTEEN created their group’s name from the meaning “13 members + 3 units + 1 team.”

SEVENTEEN’s thirteen members consist of S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino.

The members split into three units to focus on their individual talents. The Hip-Hop unit, which focuses on rap, consists of S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Vernon. Members Jeonghan, Joshua, Woozi, DK, and Seungkwan harmonize together in the Vocal Unit. Jun, Hoshi, The8, and Dino add flair to SEVENTEEN’s dance performances through their self-made choreographies in the Performance Unit.

Together as one team, the thirteen members honestly and earnestly express their feelings of love through their songs and performances.

“Attacca”’s songs (all produced by SEVENTEEN’s producer, composer and Vocal Team Leader Woozi as well as Pledis in-house producer Bumzu) center around the concept of the SEVENTEEN members experiencing the adrenaline rush of a first crush.

In the title track “Rock with You,” the SEVENTEEN members boldly confess their declarations of love to their crush.

Amidst energized pop and rock guitar elements, Chinese lead dancer and sub vocalist Jun sings in Korean: “Even if the world is ending…”

“I wanna rock with you,” SEVENTEEN’s main vocalist Seungkwan finishes in English.

The focus of SEVENTEEN experiencing an unrequited-first-crush type of love in “Attacca” is reminiscent of past song and album concepts at the early stages of their career. Some may criticize such concepts as SEVENTEEN’s inability to mature as artists. However, the group’s ability to convey love as timeless has led to their success and growth in the K-Pop industry.

Five days after the release of “Attacca,” the album hit 1.2 million copies in album sales on Hanteo Chart — a record of individual K-Pop album sales from South Korean-approved stores and websites. The achievement crowned “Attacca” as SEVENTEEN’s fifth overall million-seller album.

Five years into their K-Pop group career in 2020, SEVENTEEN reached a seniority level in the K-Pop industry. This caused concerns amongst Carats as they worried SEVENTEEN neared disbandment. Regardless, SEVENTEEN renewed their contract with Pledis Entertainment on July 19, 2020, a bit after the mark of their fifth anniversary on May 26, 2020.

At the global press conference for “Attacca” on October 22, Performance Team Leader and main dancer Hoshi said, “The fact that we renewed our contracts early became a turning point for us as a team and the next level for us in our process of maturing into adults.”

Thus the album title “Attacca” is fitting, as it is a term used as a direction in music at the end of a movement to begin the next without pause.

Even as SEVENTEEN proceeds to the next stage of their career, they strive to express their feelings of love through their music and performances.

In the album’s “Rock with You” music video, the members dance on a stage surrounded by blinding lights, creating the illusion of the members performing at a concert in front of their fans. This short scene in the video reassures Carats and the world that SEVENTEEN is here to stay.

You can listen to SEVENTEEN’s official “Attacca” Spotify playlist here.