NCT’s returning with a full group comeback!
On August 9, 2023 at 12 M.N. KST, SM Entertainment and NCT announced the first details surrounding the group’s upcoming comeback. This will be the 4th time that all units of NCT—NCT 127, NCT DREAM, NCT U, WayV (since 2020), and NCT DoJaeJung, have come together for a group comeback. Past full group comebacks were in 2018 (Empathy), 2020 (Resonance), and 2021 (Universe).
NCT’s 4th full album, “Golden Age” is set to be released on August 28, 2023 at 6 P.M. KST. Two days prior on August 26, 2023, the 20-member group will be holding their first-ever offline full group concert, “NCT NATION: To The World.”
South Korean media outlets reported that the group’s 4th full album will include 10 songs and a double title track—the group song “Golden Age” and “Baggy Jeans” by the “The 7th Sense” unit, composed of Taeyong, Ten, Doyoung, Jaehyun, and Mark. Pre-orders for the album have started today.
NCTzens admittedly, are having mixed reactions towards this announcement. Instead of feeling a collective joy from NCT’s full group comeback, NCTzens highlighted a couple of problematic decisions made by SM Entertainment that hinders their full support for the project.
1. NCT’s Jaehyun had just released his second solo track, “Horizon” not even a day prior to the announcement.
DAMN THEY DIDN’T EVEN LET JAEHYUN’S HORIZON COOK YALL THEY DIDN’T EVEN TURN THE STOVE ON https://t.co/jbwQujUIXj pic.twitter.com/Aqv91dMG8N
— 🫰🏻 (@tyongtracks) August 8, 2023
it's just so unfair that jaehyun spent months to write & record horizon and film the music video by squeezing it between his packed schedules but that company is sabotaging their own artist by not giving proper promotions. this is getting worse….jaehyun deserves better.
— ㅇㅇ (@dearestyunoh) August 8, 2023
Everyone should be on the same page that Jaehyun has taken the time to write compose record ‘Horizon’, filmed the MV during a time he was flying between 3 countries over a matter of 5 days, and SM released it with such carelessnesses. It’s really disrespectful honestly.
— JAEHYUN CHARTS (@jaehyuncharts) August 8, 2023
it happened with forever only and now horizon… it just keeps getting worse… couldn’t let the layout sit just for a day…? this is so unfair
— hourly jaehyun (@hourlyjaeh) August 8, 2023
they did forever only dirty, we dont even get the recording behind, photo dump or a content related to it and i was hoping they will do better for horizon but turns out they’re doing worse 🙂 im so done fr they just hate jaehyun atp
— kay ౨ৎ (@yunocults) August 8, 2023
honestly very upsetting how they’ve treated horizon from the first announcement til now like jaehyun worked so hard on it and they couldnt even give it one full day for itself
— ☁️ (@yongshuji) August 8, 2023
use Jaehyun only to promote the re-organized of NCT LAB and that damn new Instagram, no proper promotion, not even letting Horizon being the highlight for at least 12 hours, ans now they changed the layout only few hours after Horizon released, u fucking kidding me @SMTOWNGLOBAL
— 뷔♡ (@jaehyunpetals) August 8, 2023
Not even lasting a day or two for Jaehyun… seriously… without even a proper promotion for Jaehyun's WONDERFUL SONG… the utter bullshit… https://t.co/sTK9izN23Q
— MayLoOvaltineEnergen (@MayLoWrites) August 8, 2023
2. NCT DREAM’s promotions for “ISTJ” were not in the same level as their past comebacks with all the content that the group used to have and felt rushed.
i can’t be all happy w nct 2023 when i know dream (especially mahae) has been way too overworked, istj promotions isn’t even over YET and they have another upcoming promotion, a concert with the whole nct brand and fansigns in jkt / bkk
not to mention, they just got finished…
— annika (@jenowinkle) August 8, 2023
"boycott nct album will hurt them" oh common we still stream ISTJ day and night, we work hard for year end awards, candy and ISTJ are still revelant on charts, Dream sold 3.8M albums for ISTJ alone. We support what can benefit them not the brand.
— gigi 😼 #smoothie (@injeolmeo) August 9, 2023
sm really broke our comeback traditions (7llin, kick off meeting, and dream vs dream) because they rushed and jampacked the hell out of istj’s preparations to make way for nct 2023 🤣
— chi (@haesgom) August 7, 2023
when will nctzens finally accept that nct brand is a flop and no one cares about it anymore? Does it benefit Dream? Does it make them work for nothing? Why we have to work hard for the fucking brand when we can make them brag the awards and achievements only for Dream instead. https://t.co/1aOXwTPwd6
— gigi 😼 #smoothie (@injeolmeo) August 9, 2023
sm promised full-scale promos for istj only to remove contents like 7llin & dream vs dream, no radio shows, etc. scrapped repackage only to release a new full album for nct 2023 the next month. they also made dream celebrate their anniversary a month advance for the same thing
— yed's bff (@jenoleeader) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/leemanore/status/1688752931548565504?s=20
3. Most of the members of NCT haven’t had enough time to rest in between schedules, and some have suffered injuries as well.
after resonance era mahae never even got to have any proper rest :/ fuck YOU @SMTOWNGLOBAL
— annika (@jenowinkle) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/aesdive/status/1688930622721687552?s=20
I'm judging nctzen who are loud about dreamies need to rest but now jumping like a dog cheering about nct 2023.
— Dobo (@dr7eamkiddo) August 8, 2023
Are they resting 😂😂😂😂 this what dreamzens want rest, while SM got another big plan for them. Overworked, exhausted them but nothing in return.
After nct nations, SMtown, those fansign face to face. Non for 7dream, we don't get repackage, or those mini album excluded too https://t.co/tGsBNdnwkP
— 🫦🌝 (@anjwaaii) August 8, 2023
no renjun, no support so im gonna rest for the entire nct 2023 promotions unless renjun is given a solo project ☺️
— yel (@renjxno) August 8, 2023
And where are the “let’s boycott” people now? Where are the “let …. rest” people now?
If they so desperately want that unit to have a reunion, go and make a nct lab, why involve other members just to promote the same 5 members as always????
— naevis’ sister | 🌙 (@taeil_BYEBYEBYE) August 9, 2023
https://twitter.com/hcyers/status/1688932223192629253?s=20
i wish i was excited but they all need proper rest. like who gives af abt nct nation.. https://t.co/w6AbQsYjOq
— lulu (@7ujeongs) August 8, 2023
im excited for nct comeback but also give these men a rest omg
— cat (@minhoscastle) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/yoongiluvr4eva/status/1689077349659152384?s=20
https://twitter.com/iovezuyu/status/1689077640995782656?s=20
we really didn’t need nct 2023 by the end of august they could roll it out in November to give everyone time to rest
— 👾 (@supremelysuh) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/seokhaobinist/status/1688751716945080320?s=20
literally praying for nct to get some rest because their schedules are a fucking mess
— rox 🍇 (@donniestdarko) August 8, 2023
i am. not excited about this. the boys are overworked down to their bones 😔 no one asked!!! https://t.co/3QVYrc2WRY
— mik | mostly ia (@yutamatic) August 8, 2023
i'm so torn like i love the units doing stuff together but let them fucking rest and put some RESPECT on their name, all of this is so so rushed and unorganized i'm SICK https://t.co/jDKGEFNijt pic.twitter.com/JzTtFXSs7f
— ⁀➷ alma (@sunnyvxrse) August 8, 2023
4. WayV is not being treated well by the company (and some NCTzens), receiving almost no promotions at all, and hasn’t released new music since “Phantom”.
the only nct unit that needs a cb is WAYV nobody wants fucking nct 2023 WE WANT WAYV WE NEED WAYV https://t.co/0QnNUDw6J8
— nell🪼 (@taeilsrs) August 8, 2023
hopefully the wayv song we get on nct 2023 is a banger pic.twitter.com/nara4J2TBE
— sungchan's bodyguard (@Iove444eva) August 8, 2023
🙄SM really never hide their hate for wayv, even on Chinese media platforms. They promoted brand albums on weibo but you found they even didn't follow WayV weibo acc and any members weibo acc. I won't buy nct 2023 album. So disgusting! pic.twitter.com/3pudS4FnS6
— WayV❤️🔥GiveMeThat 6.3🩷 (@wayvsv) August 9, 2023
wayv serving us the most iconic hits nectar and miracle in the brand projects back to back now we wait for another glorious hit this year oh wayv main slayers REAL!
— ㅆ (@adareten) August 8, 2023
nct 2023 i'm gonna treat you the way you treat wayv https://t.co/aLFhcP1YpC
— domar🩷 (@screedipai) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/softwayv/status/1688936123995979776?s=20
I don’t doubt the wayv song for NCT u will be a banger, wayv doesn’t make bad music 🤷🏽♀️
— adri 💗˚ ☾⋆｡˚ (@thatsowayv) August 9, 2023
wayv being referred to as only the chinese counterpart of other units ("but chinese") feels off when they only sang the og version of phantom once in k909, if other songs have a kr/eng version that's the one they'll use too while only doing the og vers in hk, macau, and sg https://t.co/edlY2aCnDE
— 🦉🌻☔️🌧 (@prodtaeks) August 8, 2023
man wayv album preps in between nct2023 and nct nation and the phantom fanmeeting… i hope they take care of themselves (and scrap zoz3 altogether half char)
— 🦉🌻☔️🌧 (@prodtaeks) August 8, 2023
5. SM Entertainment removed 3 members from the roster (Lucas, Shotaro, and Sungchan) and the supposedly new members introduced before.
https://twitter.com/Gwong9410/status/1689161565084463104?s=20
i completely forgot that we'll have nct u without sungchan and shotaro pic.twitter.com/UpxkhZoFTJ
— ་ ⍸ ་ (@nbr4a) August 8, 2023
"golden age" when they kicked shotaro and sungchan out so some random survival boys can be in nct https://t.co/zw7PSV3GDX
— ally | ally | black panther ۞𖧷✘ (@pastxlLou) August 9, 2023
they kicked shotaro and seungchan and now it doesn’t feel like nct ):
— lex (@gyuvinshorangi) August 9, 2023
6 NCTzens “not knowing what to feel” in general about the comeback.
https://twitter.com/ltyexos/status/1688931048753876992?s=20
err anyway… here’s the full tangled movie instead https://t.co/ItwPj3nDdY https://t.co/nowbpYPhYO
— laura! (@CHENLEITO) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/jaeizms/status/1688937430529769472?s=20
"Golden age" when this entire year has been nothing but miserable to us nctzens 😭😭😭 https://t.co/p5T1LaFyMJ pic.twitter.com/RI70vIO7NF
— Nins_YOUTH 🌊(ᓀ‸ᓂ) (@doiesNini) August 8, 2023
the 28th? less than three weeks like what are we rushing for https://t.co/vtSUmuJt1F
— s (@stillwithmark) August 8, 2023
WOW the potential they had w their album titles … empathy resonance universe… im disapponted https://t.co/taKCsvUTPY
— eve 🪓 new johnyong 📌 (@fdednmylastsong) August 8, 2023
feeling a lot of emotions rn https://t.co/f9h6SRrntE pic.twitter.com/h9oYFmL88S
— O_o (@rachazoned) August 8, 2023
i dont know how to feel https://t.co/ZfX7oJbXqc pic.twitter.com/YcuOctAwF6
— ¹²⁷ 💌 (@qu333ncard) August 8, 2023
NOBODY ASKED FOR THIS https://t.co/V3n47hVhRF pic.twitter.com/OfsQa1luAB
— 🎫 (@IovedeIune) August 8, 2023
i don't even know how to feel about this https://t.co/iacP17UySK pic.twitter.com/R161qqnoD0
— nj (@iheartjsuh) August 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/divelanding/status/1689095176332230656?s=20
Honestly? Resonance was NCT’s golden era. But whatever SM Entertainment says, we’re all tuning in.
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