Minho expands musical horizons with first full-length album 'CALL BACK'

By Lee Gyu-lee

Minho of K-pop boy group SHINee is taking a big step forward with his solo music career with the release of his first full-length album, "CALL BACK," about two years after making his solo debut with mini-album "CHASE" in 2022.

In this latest work, Minho embraces new genres, shedding his usual reservations in what he playfully describes as letting go of his "Choi stubbornness" to approach the music with an open heart.

"This is an album that contains the styles of songs that I like, that I'm newly trying and that I can do well in. I hope you'll enjoy all of the tracks since the B-sides and the title track are all good," the singer said during a press conference for the new album at Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, Monday.

The new album consists of 10 songs, including the title track of the same name and two songs featuring fellow SM artists — Ningning of aespa on "Because Of You" and Sohee of RIIZE on "FIREWORKS" — as well as the afro-beat genre song "Affection" and the groovy-style R&B track "Would You Mind."

"I know I have an image of being passionate and giving my best effort all the time. However, as a solo artist, I feel I haven't shown diverse musical images," Minho said.

"Through this album 'CALL BACK,' I want to show that I can handle the R&B pop genre as well. I want to show that Minho can do these types of music and hope to gradually expand my musical world to put on various types of performances."

The title track is a pop genre song with heavy bass sounds and melodic piano tunes topped with upbeat guitar riffs.

"From what I know, no SM Entertainment artist has had this kind of song as the title track for a full-length album before," the artist said. "Although I was worried about trying something new, once I became confident I could do it well, I worked hard at it."

Minho explained that he took a lot of advice from his colleagues to challenge himself with a new style of music for this album.

"With SHINee, we always had powerful and strong title tracks for full-length albums. So for this time, I also wanted to do powerful music with an intense performance. But when the staff (I've been working with) told me 'It would be better to build my own genre than to stick with obvious cliches,' it convinced me," he said.

"I believe these staff know me better than I know myself, so I put aside my 'Choi stubbornness' and tried to listen carefully to what they had to say. This is an album that shows my ambitions about what kind of music I want to make going forward."

Since debuting as SHINee, the singer has built a versatile career, acting and singing for almost 17 years. He shared that he tirelessly forged his career in diverse fields of entertainment in pursuit of greater success.

"Though I came to this point nonstop for 17 years, I feel I haven't achieved great success yet. While I don't desperately crave success, I do get my drive from not having had that," he said.

"Although it feels like I've been running passionately, looking back, it seems I've just been walking steadily. Since I've done a good job until now, I'll continue to steadily walk my path forward."