Yunho of TVXQ on his second solo album, Noir: ‘It’s a man telling his story from youth to the person he is today’
- The 35-year-old’s concept album runs through a man’s emotions as he goes from being a boy to a man. I want people to recognise I tried something new, Yunho says
- Actors Hwang Jung-min and Lee Jung-hyun star in the music video for the single Thank U, while actress Shin Ye-eun features on the track La Rosa
K-pop became a little more classic on Monday with the release of U-Know Yunho’s new, theatrical EP Noir.
The TVXQ member’s second mini album, the six-track Noir follows 2019’s True Colors. Noir is a concept album based around revealing the full range of a man’s emotions as if through a movie, and draws on film noir for inspiration. Each track gets its own mini film, and there’s a longer music video for the single Thank U.
Launching the EP online, Yunho said Thank U was a pop song that “really reflects who I am and where I am headed”. The music video is said to be a short action noir film, and a teaser video for it hints at a dark, crime-filled plot.
“In a way, it’s just a man telling his story from youth to the person that he is today,” the 35-year-old star said. “I wanted to make this storytelling process unique and different from what I’ve tried before. I also watched a lot of movies of all genres and was inspired by what I saw. I thought it’d be really fun to create a cinematic music piece.”
The music video for Thank U has a 17-plus age rating, but Yunho revealed there would be an alternative version that is “friendlier”, and appropriate for all ages. Along with Yunho, the music video features South Korean actors Hwang Jung-min and Lee Jung-hyun.