Back in July of this year, EXO made their first comeback of 2017 with "The War." It is the popular SM Entertainment boy band's fourth long play (LP) or studio album right behind last year's "EX'ACT," and it had nine songs with "Ko Ko Bop" being featured as its title track. It was so popular that even before it officially released, it earned the record of having the most pre-orders for a K-pop album at 800,000 physical copies, a record that would eventually be taken by BTS with their upcoming comeback, "Love Yourself: Her," with over one million copies as of August 31, 2017.
Now EXO is making their second comeback via re-release of "The War" with "The War: The Power of Music." They are also featuring a new title track song, "Power," in which they become comedic space heroes trying to save the world.
EXO continues the re-release trend they started with 'XOXO'
EXO re-releasing LPs or studio albums is not a new practice for them. Back in June of 2013, they released their first LP or studio album, "XOXO," featuring title track "Wolf" on June 3. About two months later, they re-released it as "Growl" featuring three new songs. One of the songs was named after the re-released album and became a smash hit both domestically and internationally.
"The War: The Power Of Music" simply continues the practice SM Entertainment utilized for EXO with "The War."
'Power' unites everyone into one!
SM Entertainment started promoting "The War: The Power of Music" with their first teaser on August 21, 2017, the same day as the Solar eclipse, titled "#Total_Eclipse." Two more subsequent teasers followed titled "#Parallel_Universe" and "Power #RF_05." Afterwards, more traditional pre-release promos were released including teaser images for each member and a teaser trailer for the "Power" music video.
"The War: The Power of Music" officially released on September 5, 2017, KST. Korean and Mandarin versions of the "Power" music video were uploaded on SM Entertainment's official YouTube channel on the same day.
Both currently sit at under 500,000 views each.
Many K-pop fans, especially those who are a part of EXO's fan club known as EXO-L praised EXO's creative direction with "Power." Just like "Ko Ko Bop" showed EXO's utilization of Reggae, "Power" utilized an upbeat techno sound that fits very well with the space hero theme. As for the music video itself, it was praised for its comic book and cartoon style presentation.
Since "The War: The Power of Music" just released, there are no numbers on how many copies were sold just yet. It can only add to the high number of sales "The War" originally accumulated. For U.S. fans who want to own a copy of EXO's new album, both the Korean and Chinese versions are available on YesAsia.
