Maps of Music

Lion Heart (2015)

Where the lyrics of Lion Heart take you, and where it was really made.

The album came out in two parts on consecutive days, and a second edition with different artwork and the title You Think followed a week later.

Key places

Recording studio: SM Studios, Seoul (2015)

Recording site Big Hit Studios, Seoul — The source lists SM Studios in Seoul as the studio for this album. The pin uses the city-centre coordinates, so it marks Seoul in general, not the exact building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Private company studio, not open to visitors.

Album story

Overview

• Fifth Korean studio album and eighth overall by Girls' Generation
• Produced by Lee Soo-man
• Musically electropop and bubblegum pop
• Released in two parts on August 18 and August 19, 2015, by SM Entertainment
• First overall studio album without former member Jessica, who was dismissed on September 30, 2014

Background

• Lead single "Party" released July 7, 2015, topped the Gaon Digital Chart and reached number ten on the Japan Hot 100
• "Lion Heart" and "You Think" followed in August 2015, charting at number four and thirty on the Gaon Digital Chart
• Album details announced August 12, 2015; Billboard described the release strategy as "atypical"
• Before the album, the group released music video previews of three singles on June 30, 2015
• Girls' Generation promoted the record on KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core, and SBS' Inkigayo
• Concert tour Girls' Generation's Phantasia began November 21, 2015, in Seoul

Cover

• An alternative edition with different artwork, titled You Think, was released August 26, 2015

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed by SM Entertainment; known as SNSD and SoShi
• Originally a nine-member group; Jessica departed in September 2014, leaving eight members
• Members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, Seohyun
• Debuted August 5, 2007 with "Into the New World"

Career

• 2009 breakthrough with "Gee", a record nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on KBS Music Bank
• Oh! (2010) won the Disk Daesang at the Golden Disc Awards, the first and only female act to win the Album Daesang
• Japanese debut in 2011; first non-Japanese girl group to have three number-one albums on the Oricon Albums Chart
• Called "The Nation's Girl Group" in South Korea
• First Asian girl group to reach five YouTube music videos with over 100 million views
• Subgroups TTS, Girls' Generation-Oh!GG, and Girls' Generation-HRS; members have pursued solo careers since 2017
• Reunited for the 15th anniversary in 2022 with Forever 1

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Slant Magazine's Anzhe Zhang wrote the album was released to "quash" suspicions that Girls' Generation was declining after Jessica left in September 2014
• Zhang added that the album "feels a little more than scatter-brained" while being great for omnivorous die-hard fans
• Chester Chin of Malaysian newspaper The Star praised the singles "Party", "Lion Heart" and "You Think" as "a promising start"
• Chin disapproved of the rest of the album, calling it a "relatively tame offering"
• Chin criticized the songs "Green Light" and "Paradise" for being too "generic"
• Kim Do-heon of South Korean online magazine IZM called the album "elegant" and appreciated its musical styles
• Kim felt the album was a decline compared to the group's previous albums as a nine-piece group

Records

• Debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart on the chart issue dated August 22, 2015, and stayed at the top for a further week
• Dropped 35 positions two weeks after debut, charting at number 36
• Best-selling album of August 2015 in South Korea, selling 131,228 physical copies
• 13th most-sold album of 2015 in South Korea with total sales of 145,044 units
• Charted at number 11 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart on the chart issue dated August 31, 2015
• Peaked atop the Billboard World Albums chart, the group's second number one after 2013 album I Got a Boy

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Billboard described the two-day release strategy as "atypical"
• The album's "Show Girls" was originally recorded in Japanese for the group's 2014 greatest hits album, The Best
• The alternative edition You Think used a different artwork and was released a week after the main release
• Lion Heart was the first overall studio album without Jessica, who had been dismissed in September 2014
• The album sold 131,228 physical copies in August 2015 alone, making it the best-selling album of that month in South Korea

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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