SF9 returned with a special album last month to celebrate their fourth year in the industry. The special album, titled SPECIAL HISTORY BOOK, is the focus of this album review and features Shine Together as the lead title track, along with two other new songs which I have reviewed below. This release also follows SF9’s 2020 comebacks, Good Guy and Summer Breeze.

1. Shine Together (손잡아 줄게) (Title Track) – Click here to read the full review for Shine Together. (8/10)

2. Forever (오래 오래) – Forever is a mixture of genres that comes off quite refined and polished. It is an interesting piece, given that you don’t think the extremities (EDM and ballad) would blend well together yet they work surprisingly well with one another. To be fair, it isn’t an extreme form of either genres, which probably helps make the combination work. The EDM comes through the instrumental. There is your usual beat drop and the synthetic nature in the song. However, it is quite breezy and airy, which compliments the ballad style. The vocals and melodies bring the balladry elements to Forever and they felt similar to Shine Together’s vocals/melodies. Soothing and light are the words I would use to describe their delivery, which again, compliments the EDM style for this song. (8/10)

3. Love No. 5 – Love No. 5 needs a stage performance as soon as possible. The beat drop in the chorus is definitely a highlight and drawing point to the song. It is intense and on par with SF9’s more powerful releases like RPM. The vocal part of the chorus that precedes the drop is quite consistent and I am digging how it just keeps coming at you. The vocals added a certain smoothness to the song, while the rapping added some additional edge and had nice delivery, both of which I really enjoyed. I would have liked the final chorus to be amped up a little more to help drive a more epic closure to the song. On a side note, I would like to know what Love No. 5 actually means as the concept sounds rather intriguing. (9/10)

Overall Album Rating – 8.3/10