Stray Kids, composed of members Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, have been steadily growing their fanbase both at home and internationally. Their first official release, 2018’s I Am NOT, sold a total of 86,576 copies on Korea’s Circle Chart by the end of the year. 2022’s Maxident eclipsed that, reaching 2.16 million copies in just its 1st week sales on the Korean Hanteo chart.
2022 has been a very busy, and very successful, year for the self-produced 8-man K-pop group. Their first release this year, March’s Oddinary, was their first album to debut atop of the Billboard 200 chart, making them only the third Korean act to do so behind SuperM and BTS (since then Blackpink has also joined the ranks with September’s Born Pink). Shortly after in April, they embarked on their second world tour, Stray Kids 2nd World Tour “Maniac”, compromising of 34 sold out shows so far across Korea, Japan, and the US. During the tour, they still managed to work on and release other pieces of music, such as their 2nd Japanese EP Circus and single Mixtape: Time Out.
Stray Kids’ latest EP, Maxident, released October 7th, compromising of 8 tracks spearheaded by their lead single CASE 143. Despite its bright colors and theme of their declaration of love, it still has the classic hard, bass-heavy sound that defined their music since debut. It’s a mixture of multiple musical elements, a staple of many Stray Kids hits such as Back Door, with elements of EDM, trap and even some bossa nova evident throughout.
The rest of the album is full of quality songs that longtime fans of the group have come to love and expect, from hard hitting fast paced tracks like the synth rock-esque SUPER BOARD and the drill inspired 3RACHA, to slower and more romantic tracks like the sexy TASTE and the lo-fi CHILL. Stray Kids have once again created a versatile collection of music composed around the concept of love, whether its innocently romantic, toxically painful or simply loving oneself.
With this latest release, Stray Kids become the only act this year to have 2 albums debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 227,000 totaling across both releases. 117,000 of those come from Maxident, making it not only their highest selling album in the charts, but also the 4th-highest overall of any act this year so far. In addition, Stray Kids also accomplished their highest ever pre-order sales internationally, coming in at 3rd with 2.24 million copies (coming in behind BTS’s Map of the Soul: 7 and Map of the Soul: Persona).
Original draft, copyedited version can be found on The Ticker: https://theticker.org/9026/arts/stray-kids-prove-they-are-here-to-stay-with-maxident/
