CLC K-Pop Comeback In 2017: CUBE Entertainment Girl Group Utilizes New, Edgy Concept For ‘Crystyle’ With HyunA Writing Lyrics For Track, ‘Goblin’ [Video]

Last year, Cube Entertainment suffered one of its most debilitating years in the company and label’s history, as it lost not one, but both of their leading K-pop acts. The first to go was 4Minute, a five-member girl group consisting of Jihyun, Gayoon, Jiyoon, Hyuna, and Sohyun. After their last comeback, an EP or mini-album titled Act. 7, featuring the title track “Hate,” failed to earn much success, Cube Entertainment majority stockholder, SidusHQ (iHQ), reportedly pulled the plug, which abruptly led to their disbandment. Eventually, Beast would follow after 4Minute, deciding not to renew with Cube Entertainment, and to establish their own independent label, Around US Entertainment.

With the two veteran K-pop acts of Cube Entertainment, one being a boy band and the other being a girl group, now gone, the weight of the company’s success now rests on the shoulders of their second and third generation K-pop acts, CLC, BtoB, and Pentagon. BtoB did very well with their three 2016 K-pop comebacks, which included their first Japanese full-length studio album, 24/7. And if by chance BtoB did not do well, Pentagon would have helped cushion the impact with their successful 2016 debut of their self-titled mini-album and their K-pop comeback right after with Five Senses.

CLC, on the other hand, is all alone. The seven-member girl group consisting of Seunghee, Yujin, Seungyeon, Sorn, Yeeun, Elkie, and Eunbin now has to carry Cube Entertainment’s K-pop girl group side of things after 4Minute’s disbandment. They are not in a good place to be shouldering the responsibility given the fact most of the K-pop community believe CLC has made no real return for Cube Entertainment. Apparently, both CLC and their label knows this as they prepare for their 2017 K-pop comeback with a brand new style that is much edgier than their last comebacks. Not only that, Hyuna, the only former member of 4Minute to stay with Cube Entertainment after the girl group disbanded, will assist by writing lyrics for their track, “Goblin.”

#CLC 5TH MINI ALBUM
[#CRYSTYLE]
COMEBACK SCHEDULE pic.twitter.com/U5G6qVu3gC

— CLC·??? (@CUBECLC) January 5, 2017

News of Crystal Clear, better known as CLC, taking a new direction for their 2017 K-pop comeback was first announced by Cube Entertainment on Thursday, January 5, as reported by Officially Kmusic. According to the outlet, CLC will be polishing up and upgrading themselves for a new image to re-enter K-pop with. What they want to do is make CLC huge overseas and they are definitely doing all they can for their upcoming fifth mini-album, Crystyle. Cube Entertainment also provided a time table of their pre-release promotions leading up to the mini-album’s release.

According to the pre-release promotions list, we know the first set are teaser concept images. Upon their release, K-pop fans realized CLC was not messing around. They look so different from their previous comebacks as they now have a punk vibe for edgy individual teaser images, which were released on their official Daum Cafe, as reported by AllKpop.

As of now, CLC has released their first and second concept images, a track list, and an audio snippet of each song on Crystyle. After listening to the audio snippet from the video uploaded on their official YouTube page (attached above), many K-pop fans are noticing the difference in style and they like it. One of the people they should thank is Hyuna, because she wrote the lyrics for the track, “Goblin,” as reported by Soompi. And thanks to the video, we know that “Goblin” is an EDM trap song with unique lyrics about a female goblin seducing someone she likes. They probably got the idea, to an extent, from the popular Total Variety Network (tvN) K-drama, Goblin.

There will be four more days of pre-release promotions for Crystyle before it drops on Tuesday, January 17, in Korea, or Monday, January 16, for the Americas. We still have a third concept photo set, intro teaser, music video teaser, and a countdown on V Live to look forward to.

[Featured Image by Cube Entertainment]