Nearly 3 1/2 years since its debut, Pentagon is releasing its very first full-length album, “Universe: The Black Hall.”

The album consists of 11 tracks representing different genres, and leader Hui says it captures the essence of the band’s work so far.

“The new album is an aggregation of our previous nine EPs we’ve released so far,” he said during the press showcase in Seoul on Wednesday.

While some might think 3 1/2 years is a long delay, Jinho said he wanted to be sure the work was solid.

“At the beginning, we weren’t writing songs. But through the nine albums, I think we’ve found our colors. It might have taken us longer than others but we wanted to be completely confident before releasing a full-length album.”

Fronting the album is “Dr. BeBe,” a bass-heavy electro-pop number that touches on four stages of being in love -- “love,” “fall,” “hurt” and “crazy.”

The song tries to tap into the sentiment experienced by people who feel trapped in a cycle of love, Hui explained before adding that the song was written within a day. Fellow bandmate Shinwon said it went down well with the rest of the group when it was first played.

Other bandmates were heavily involved in the making of the album as well, including Kino, who helped compose the melody and co-wrote the lyrics of “Die for You.” He said he drew inspiration from Harley Quinn in the superhero film “Suicide Squad” while writing the lyrics from the supervillain’s perspective.

“Camellia” was co-written by Japanese member Yuto, who looked up the flower’s significance while studying Korean.

He explained that the symbolic meaning behind the flower -- “loving someone more than anything” -- inspired him to write the lyrics.

One member, YanAn, was absent from the showcase event, having decided to opt out for health reasons, according to the group’s agency, Cube Entertainment. But the bandmates are still in touch with him.

“We keep in touch with YenAn and send regards to each other. We spoke yesterday and he sent his support our way, which makes us work even harder,” Hui said.



By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)