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NCT return with new album that displays talents of all 23 band members and pushes the boundaries of K-pop

  • Multi-team K-pop boy band’s latest album, NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 2, is their second group-wide project, and explores the wide range of their individual styles
  • The fluidity of NCT’s methods means most of the varied singer combinations impress and smoothly complement each other

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NCT released their latest album, NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 2, this week. It brilliantly displays the talents of all 23 band members. Photo: SM Entertainment
Tamar Herman

When it comes to the experimental side of K-pop that helped the South Korean music scene gain worldwide acclaim, few are doing it more ambitiously than NCT.

An act with 23 members – and counting – launched by media company SM Entertainment, NCT released their latest album, NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 2, this week. The second instalment in their Resonance series, coming after last month’s Pt. 1, the boy band’s latest release highlights their dedication to pushing the boundaries of K-pop.

NCT now have three distinct teams – global team NCT 127, youthful NCT Dream and China-oriented WayV – and more to come. The 2020 Resonance series is their second group-wide project and sees the members explore a wide range of styles, most of them a bit retro. It also centralises the act’s identity as a unified, but individualistic K-pop group without leaving anyone behind.
Since day one of their career, NCT – an acronym for “Neo Culture Technology” – have represented SM Entertainment’s desire to go bigger and better with each release (its latest girl group, Aespa, is a hybrid group with both human and virtual members).

As “a group without limits”, NCT have gone from original single-digit NCT U teams back in 2016 with debut songs The 7th Sense and Without You, to today’s outfit with almost two dozen members.

Rather than overwhelm with the sheer scale of NCT, Pt. 2 shows what each individual NCT unit and member has to offer, while bringing them together for a complete performance-based album.

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