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| Photo Credit: MYSTIC STORY |
ARrC, a multinational K-Pop boy group under MYSTIC STORY, has released their third mini album, "HOPE." This album comes about five months after the release of their second mini album, nu kidz: out the box, in February 2025. Similar to the meaning behind the group’s name, Always Remember the real Connection, "HOPE" reflects ARrC’s message of finding connection, overcoming uncertainty, and discovering optimism in a chaotic world.
“We’re very thrilled and excited to be back with a new album after about 5 months since our last release. Our third mini album, HOPE, conveys the youth’s complicated emotions with honesty and depth, and it means a lot to me personally because I got to participate in our album as a lyricist for the first time. All members poured much thought and effort into expressing ARrC’s unique color more vividly through this album, and we’re confident that we have created an album with a great level of completeness. We hope to send positive energy and solace to many people through our music and new album.”
- HYUNMIN, member of ARrC
The first and title track of "HOPE," 'awesome' re-interprets early 2000s hip-hop sound with their own modern twist. The song describes a day full of small, unfortunate events that anyone can find themselves in, but encourages listeners to shout out the word ‘awesome’ in response to try to turn their mood and day into something more positive. The music video was inspired by several different cultures from Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Portugal. Using backdrops that pay homage to 1980s Japanese school films: abandoned apartments, old playgrounds, and kendo halls, the music video combines reality and symbols in striking scenes that include Dokkaebi, mythical creatures from Korean folklore. Dokkaebi for ARrC represents their inner world. The monster-like creatures in the video send a playful message: even unlucky moments can turn lucky, depending on how we look at them. Inspired by traditional masks from Indonesia’s Barong, Portugal’s Careto, and Korea’s Hahoetal, these figures don’t represent fear—they symbolize the youth's ability to turn disasters into humor, mistakes into chances, and chaos into creativity.
There are four other tracks on the album: “dawns,” “kick back,” “vitamin I,” and “night life.” “dawns” blends multiple musical genres, including nu jazz, soul, and funk, and describes the thrill of connection that removes anxiety from staring at the glowing phone screen and endlessly scrolling social media feeds throughout the long night, finally reaching the dawn of a new day. Members HYUNMIN and CHOI HAN were credited as lyricists for “dawns,” which is a first time for both members. The third track, “kick back,” highlights the importance of coming together as one to fight against the challenges with lines like “We’re flowers blooming on asphalt.” “vitamin I” contains the rough energy of hip-hop, hyperpop, and electro-punk. Its overall message is that self-belief is worth far more than validation from others or other external and societal standards, while asserting that the most essential vitamin is none other than ‘I,’ representing oneself, imagination, identity, and infinity. The album closes with “night life,” a neo-soul, G-funk slow jam track with lo-fi sound that portrays the image of a youth making diligent efforts for their dreams in a silent city at dawn while everyone else is asleep. The album represents ARrC’s core messaging of making real connections and striving for a better tomorrow through concentrated efforts and sincerity.
“I’m very excited to present new music to everyone after a while. This album expresses what ARrC thinks and feels these days with much sincerity, so I personally resonate with this album a lot. We shared many conversations and ideas while working on this album, especially about how we can convey certain emotions through music, and I hope all the listeners can relate to our message and sincerity. As always, we’ll give our best in the album promotion activities, and we ask for your love and support.”
- DOHA, member of ARrC
Along with teasing for "HOPE" , the group released “SKIID,” a preview of what’s to come after the release of "HOPE" . Sharing a preview track for the following album as a part of the current album’s teaser is ARrC’s signature method of connecting first with their fans, ARrCer, so that the fans can be a part of the group’s artistic journey.
For their new album, ARrC also collaborated with Karafuru, a global character entity. Following the album’s title, their collaboration centers around the theme of ‘HOPE’ and ARrC will continue sharing the energy of hope and positivity by expanding into various areas such as fan meetings, exhibitions, pop-up stores, merchandise, digital projects, collaboration artwork, and music projects with characters of Karafuru. ARrC and Karafuru’s collaboration garners great attention with its attempt at a unique global project beyond music.
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