BLUE PARADISE

When ZEROBASEONE debuted in summer 2023 out of a K-pop competition show, the nine-member group announced “blue” as their official color. In *BLUE PARADISE*, ZEROBASEONE’s fifth mini album, the color takes on an even more central role: as a theme to explore. “Blue” can mean the pain of love, the radiance of being alive, or the soulful vocals stemming from R&B\'s influence on the industry. “We wanted to tell you this story of how we found love that is a mixture of sadness and beauty,” Chinese vocalist Zhang Hao tells Apple Music of the album’s lead single, simply titled “BLUE.” The track is sung for the group’s fandom, named ZEROSE (a combination of “zero” and “rose”), and is the second lead-single collaboration between K-pop hitmaker KENZIE and ZEROBASEONE, following 2024’s “GOOD SO BAD.” The six-track album also includes ZEROBASEONE’s first unit song, “Out of Love,” a “band song that showcases youth and freshness extremely well,” according to Zhang Hao, who features with fellow members Kim Gyu-vin and Kim Ji-woong. Kim Ji-woong calls the track “a rock version” of ZEROBASEONE’s debut song, “In Bloom,” also highlighting its “rock and R&B vibes.” ZEROBASEONE walks Apple Music through all six tracks of *BLUE PARADISE* below. **“BLUE”** Sung Han Bin: “This song is meaningful ’cause it has a touching message towards ZEROSE. Especially in this ‘BLUE’ song, there were many scenes that reminded me of our debut song, ‘In Bloom,’ since our music video/album cover shoot. And so, there are many points that will remind you of our touching debut, which I hope you’ll be interested to know.” Zhang Hao: “I enjoyed working with KENZIE on this song again, just like the title song of our fourth mini album \[‘GOOD SO BAD’ on *CINEMA PARADISE*\]. We wanted to tell you this story of how we found love that is a mixture of sadness and beauty.” **“Devil Game”** Kim Ji-woong: “ZEROBASEONE is synonymous with freshness, but ‘Devil Game’ has quite a different vibe. I’m pretty sure we’ll get to show you a mood you’ve never seen before.” Seok Matthew: “This one was created based on the game concept of hide-and-seek, so there are questions such as ‘Do you love me? Or do you hate me?’ I really like this song ’cause this is our first attempt at such a unique concept, so I hope you all enjoy it too.” **“Doctor! Doctor!”** Kim Tae-rae: “This song contains the meaning that ZEROBASEONE will heal the pain of love! It’s a song that makes you think a lot about the meaning of love while depicting a journey of being addicted to love but being healed.” **“Out of Love”** Zhang Hao: “This unit song is a song with a band sound that showcases youth and freshness extremely well. Even the addictive melody and lyrics express our feeling of falling in love with the ZEROSE.” Kim Ji-woong: “Hao, Gyu-vin, and I are releasing our first unit song, so I hope our fans like this one a lot. It has rock and R&B vibes, but personally, I think it’s more like a rock version of ‘In Bloom.’ It’s a song full of youth and freshness, almost like rushing towards you and hugging you tightly.” Kim Gyu-vin: “This song is the first-ever unit song we’re showcasing since the beginning of ZEROBASEONE. Just like our album title, *BLUE PARADISE*, Hao hyung, Ji-woong hyung, and I sang and created this very refreshing and blue song. We wanted to show you how well the three of us worked on this amazing song, so please listen to it and let us know what you think.” **“Step Back”** Ricky: “It’s an R&B song, but it’s closer to rhythm than blues. Extremely intense rhythm! The melody is also very catchy. We had a lot of fun working on this style since it’s something ZEROBASEONE had never done before, and I’m glad we took on this challenge!” Han Yu-jin: “This is my first unit song as a part of ZEROBASEONE! So happy and excited that this song is included in our fifth mini album. Above all, it was so fun and awesome working with Ricky hyung and Gun-wook hyung, and since I put a lot of effort into providing my input for this one, I hope our ZEROSE appreciate its cool composition.” Park Gun-wook: “I think it’s a fab song that can double the charm of Ricky, Yu-jin, and Gun-wook. It’s got a sick bassline, and the three of us have created a cool melody, so I would say that it’s a unit song where each of our charms blend together harmoniously.” **“Cruel”** Sung Han-bin: “You’ll get to experience the various charms of Han-bin, Matthew, and Tae-rae that you’ve never seen before. Since the song has a band-based sound, we hope you look forward to our ‘unexpected charm,’ where we show you a different side of us.” Seok Matthew: “‘Cruel’ is my first time doing a unit song. The rock vibe is a bit different from our usual singing style, but I think we pulled it off well with our own charm. Hope y’all look forward to our stage!” Kim Tae-rae: “In ‘Cruel,’ the not-so-mischievous members wanted to show their mischievous sides, so we tried our best. Please look forward to our new characters.”