NEVER SAY NEVER


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NEVER SAY NEVER

Album ∙ K-Pop ∙ 2025

ZEROBASEONE

With the end of their initial contract looming, ZEROBASEONE (also known as ZB1) released their first full-length album: 2025’s NEVER SAY NEVER. For the K-pop squad formed out of the 2023 survival show Boys Planet, the 10-track album represents both a celebration of everything the nine members accomplished in the first two years of their career through their Youth trilogy and Paradise duology, and a powerful sense of ephemerality linked to the group’s uncertain future.

Nu-disco groove lead single “ICONIK” harnesses both album functions. “We can make history, yes, I know that,” members SUNG HAN BIN and ZHANG HAO chant together in the track’s interlude, in between funk-infused choruses that bring listeners “on top of the moon” as the members sing of their gravity-defying ambition. Anime-inspired hip-hop dance track “SLAM DUNK” keeps things much closer to the ground, while the sensual “Lovesick Game” and sunny “Goosebumps” explore two very different sides of pop-coded attraction.

The group separates for subunit tracks “EXTRA” (SUNG HAN BIN, SEOK MATTHEW, KIM GYU VIN, PARK GUN WOOK, and HAN YU JIN) and “Long Way Back” (KIM JI WOONG, ZHANG HAO, KIM TAE RAE, and RICKY) before coming back together for “Star Eyes,” an upbeat, EDM-driven track about the magical connection between a pop group and its fans.

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