MOON is Lovemonth's first single album and was released on October 15th, 2021. The title track was "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" and there were no promoted B-sides. This is the group's first comeback.
~TRACKS~
달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)
ZOMBIE
thank u so much Yumin Solo
~STYLE~
Hair:
Yumin stuck with long and blonde, but went with a more dirty blond color than her usual platinum.
Rudy still had long, jet black hair, but with a comma bang this time around.
Yeojeong continued to rock her long, dark brown hair for this era.
Byeol kept her usual bangs, but opted for a more natural brown color for her hair.
Hotaru’s hair was dyed lavender and cut into a short bob. She liked how cute her hair looked when she tied back the longer part for their Love In The Night promotions, so she decided to commit to the bob.
Chowon had the most interesting makeover this era: she got see-through bangs and her hair was dyed ombre jet black to ash grey.
Stage Outfits:
달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)
Reflecting the music video, there were two different outfits for "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)": the innocent schoolgirl uniform "before" outfits and the lacey, tainted "after" outfits. aelifes liked the looks they served throughout the MOON era, but noticed they weren't as finished as their debut looks. Some had visible rough edges and threads hanging... The former were usually deconstructed uniforms with exaggerated sleeves, leather belts with steel accents, cropped jackets, and punky skorts although there was a stage towards the end of promotions where they just wore school uniforms with personalized nametags. The latter outfits were most simple; mostly flowy lace or chiffon tops with black slacks or shorts. The girls still looked good, but aelifes noticed the inconsistent quality compared to the more intricate "school uniforms". The biggest difference between the two themes were that the "school uniforms" were in a variety of colors (usually bold color combinations like red and black, green and navy, or purple and grey) while the lacey outfits were only in all white, all black, or in a mixture of black and white.
thank u so much
There was only one "thank u so much" stage, but it was a moment. From the second Yumin stepped onto the stage in her black and white crop top with red accents, her white leather pants with blue patches, and ivory stiletto boots, she was iconic. She revealed on After School Club that she actually styled the look herself. It was even her idea to wear a sleek, navy wig because she thought "darker hair fit the vibe of the song more".
~THE CHARTS~
"달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" peak positions:
Bugs!: #49 MelOn: #51 FLO: #54 Genie: #58 VIBE: #59
Music Show Wins: 0
"ZOMBIE" peak positions:
FLO: #89 VIBE: #94
~ERA HIGHLIGHTS~
Lovemonth promoted "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" for three weeks, a fortnight less than their debut promotions. They were supposed to start promotions on October 4th, but their comeback was pushed to October 15th. This caused quite a stir among aelifes.
To make matters worse, even casual K-pop fans could tell the era clearly did not have as much money behind it as their debut...😬
The music video was cool though. The premise was that the girls were students in detention when all of a sudden the school went into lockdown for an unspecified reason. They eventually were able to leave the school only to find out they were in the middle of a werewolf turf war, the girls themselves becoming divided amongst the six packs. A war began among the packs as they fought for control of the land, but in the end the girls came out on top. They became their respective packs' leaders and decided to split the land equally amongst the packs. It doesn't sound super interesting when you explain it, but it was good.
Despite the CGI being lackluster and the costumes looking kinda cheap, the music video was action-packed and very entertaining to watch for new and veteran aelifes alike.
The video hit 1 million views within 48 hours, and hit 5 million in a little less than two weeks, which prompted a "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" dance practice video and performance video. It also prompted some other perks, but more on that later.
The B-sides got quite a bit of attention in their own ways. "thank u so much", thanks to the iconic special stage, became pretty popular among the LGBT community in South Korea. One could hear it being blasted in illegally-operating underground gay clubs all over Itaewon.
"ZOMBIE", was a different story: the B-side unexpectedly appeared on the charts. It became popular most likely due to the drama Oh My Zombie, a Korean version of the American series iZombie in which Yeojeong was cast.
She played Seong Min-ah, a test subject zombie that just wanted to be a good person. The public really related to her character and were devastated when she eventually died (spoiler alert).
After the conclusion of her character’s storyline , more people started checking out Lovemonth, and lo and behold their most recent release has a song called "ZOMBIE". It became the unofficial theme song of the series, which was hilarious because rookie group PURPLE KISS had previously recorded an OST that was meant to be the series' theme. Sorry, Plorys!
They didn’t promote the song (opting instead to promote Yumin's solo track) to the disappointment of many aelifes, but they did perform it at festivals and even put out a special Halloween-themed dance practice for the song complete with costumes (Yumin - Lara Croft, Rudy - Sae-byeok, Yeojeong - Miss Scarlet, Byeol - T-Rex, Hotaru - Sailor Chibiusa, Chowon - Evil Queen).
Even though Yumin got the solo song, this era turned out to be Rudy’s in a funny way? For good and not-so-good reasons.
One major activity she was privileged enough to participate in during this era: Showtime! Making The Idol.
S!MTI is a drama about the trials and tribulations of the Korean music industry. She plays Chantara Boripat, also known by her stage name Chantel, who is the leader of the fictional quartet, BLACKMAMBA.
The show was well-received by the public and critics lauded her performance, one critic saying she was born to play this role.
Rudy, along with her castmates (Linney of 7LITE, soloist Genie, and Yoo Ki Jeong) performed a special stage for “BLACK MAMBA” on The Show as BLACKMAMBA. The song became extremely popular in no small part due to Rudy’s incomparable vocal talents.
It received so much love from the public, the group came together again the following week and performed. This time the vocals were very clearly live, and when Rudy hit her high note everyone screamed. K-pop Twitter blew up wondering why no one told them that Lovemonth had three main vocals in their group, meanwhile aelifes were sitting back like "I TOLD YO ASS"
This leads to the meh part…
"BLACK MAMBA" was a lot of people’s discovery of Rudy’s spectacular vocals which left a lot of people wondering why they didn’t know about this sooner?
Some people tried to rationalize things, saying that she was filming while recording the single’s songs, so that’s probably why her voice isn’t on MOON as much as it’s on Love In The Night.
That seemed to quell the speculation...until the vocal part switch video.
Lovemonth promised that if the "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" music video hit 2 million views, they’d do a VLive where they switch lines.
Over 5 million views later, the girls found themselves doing a vocal part switch VLive. After they drew envelopes with each other's names inside, the lineup looked like this: Yumin > Hotaru, Rudy > Chowon, Yeojeong > Yumin, Byeol > Rudy, Hotaru > Yeojeong, and Chowon > Byeol.
Yumin sang Hotaru’s parts pretty well, Yeojeong proved that she’s not a rapper, Hotaru impressed aelifes with how well she was able to cover Yeojeong’s parts...and then there was Rudy.
She didn’t do a good job; she did an incredible job. She not only sang Chowon’s parts flawlessly, she nailed every note and even added some riffs and ad-libs. She earned her main vocal title.
The video was flooded with comments; about a quarter of them regarding Hotaru as an all-rounder while half of them were praising Rudy’s vocal ability. It was clear to so many that she has so much talent and doesn't get the recognition (or lines) she deserves.
This led to the beginning of aelifes' #RudyDeservesBetter campaign...
~SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES~
Yeojeong vs. Rudy: Yeojeong couldn’t be present for the group's performance of "보름달 (Full Moon)" due to scheduling conflicts, which sorta led to Rudy inadvertently shading her on IG Live? A user commented on how well Rudy sang and how they had only wished OT6 did the cover to which she responded, "Yes, well...Yeojeongie has a very busy schedule since she’s a working actress." Many viewers commented that she is also a working actress to which she replied, "Yes! I always do my best to make it to every Lovemonth activity...I make time for the things I care about." She then realized what she had implied almost immediately and tried to clarify, but it was too late. Yeojeong-biased aelifes were attacking Rudy-biased aelifes for weeks, some making extremely xenophobic statements about the Rudy's Thai heritage. The Rudy-biased aelifes fought back by pointing out the xenophobia, but also attacking Yeojeong for being a "talentless bimbo" who is "just using the group to become famous". YURI&Co. made no official statement and neither did Yeojeong nor Rudy. The cyber rivalry died down eventually.
~ACTIVITIES~
Chowon continues to host After School Club as a guest MC in Jamie Park's absence. She even got to interview her fellow members during their promotions ☺
Yeojeong played supporting character Seong Min-ah on Oh My Zombie.
"Not Friends (Prod. by VRCHXR)" by FUNFACTORY x Lovemonth. This was released prior to MOON, but it still counts as being in the MOON era? Right? Yes.
Rudy is playing main character Chantara Boripat, aka Chantel on Showtime! Making The Idol.
The Random Dance Play from their Fact iN Star interview.
"어쩌나 (Oh My!)" by Lovemonth (Seventeen). Byeol talked about how much of a Seventeen fan she was on Fact iN Star; she even lamented over the fact that they didn’t have any Seventeen songs to dance to, so Yves then challenged them to cover a Seventeen song. They delivered.
Their cover of "보름달 (Full Moon)" by Sunmi for M Countdown’s Halloween episode. Many aelifes realized this was a full circle moment for Yumin. She had started out as a JYP trainee and actually penned as well as performed the rap for the Sunmi track. She even featured in the live stages as promotion for the group she was supposed to debut in, MISS6. Unfortunately, the group was disbanded before debut and she left the company. Fans of her were bummed that she was done so dirty, but then realized if it hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t have joined THE FUN FACTORY and she wouldn’t have debuted in Lovemonth.
"Kissing You" by Girls Generation. Because the powers that be refuse to let Yumin live, the girls performed a cover of “Kissing You” at KBS Song Festival 2021. If you look real close at Yumin’s face, you can see her regretting every life choice leading up to this moment.
Due to the B-side's popularity, Lovemonth was asked to do a special Suit Dance version of "Zombie"!