SHINee recently sat down with the news site Osen for a revealing chat about their fourth album, “Odd.”

Member Jonghyun wrote the lyrics for their title track entitled “View,” which the band says even SM Entertainment‘s founder Lee Soo Man has complimented him on.

Jonghyun was chosen out of forty competitors who were vying for the role of songwriter for the title track. “I’ve often lost when songwriters are chosen,” he says, “so even when I was writing the lyrics I wasn’t expecting much. I rewrote the lyrics three or four times because the song is about something that’s important to me.”

“To be honest, when my lyrics were chosen, I was really nervous,” he adds. “Because it’s a lot of pressure to write a title song.”

Minho says, “We all liked the lyrics for the title song right away as soon as we saw them.”

“Odd” is the first Korean album that the band has put out in two years. This year is also the seventh anniversary of their debut, so the album is even more meaningful to the members.

Jonghyun says, “We’re so grateful that even though SHINee’s been around for seven years now, throughout that considerably long time we’ve been able to work hard without any interruption. It’s for that reason that we tried even harder on this album to create something new that deviates from our former albums.”

He explains, “Now that time’s passed, instead of thinking that we need to be attractive guys, we want to show what we think it is to be SHINee. Our concept this time is our natural selves, the way we usually are, just like other people our age.”

“So even though the title song is called ‘Odd,’ the way we present ourselves in this concept is actually the natural and comfortable way that we’ve all always been since we were young,” Jonghyun adds.

Minho says, “Despite the fact that seven years have gone by, we haven’t reached perfection and are still developing. And we want to show you a variety of different sides of us in the future. So I hope that during these promotions, many people will watch us and listen to our music.”

SHINee are back this time around with a softer and more relaxed performance, which differs from their previously more powerful concepts. Regarding this change, the band says, “We didn’t lose our strength, we just wanted to show a more relaxed side of us. As we are trying to show something new, it’s important for us to express that side.”

They add, “Since it’s a genre of song and dance that we haven’t done before, we were curious about how people would respond to it. But since people are liking it more than we’d thought, we feel really encouraged. It seems to be starting out great.”

On May 24, SHINee had a special fan meeting at Korea University to celebrate their seventh year as a group.

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