About LOONA's Unreleased "La Maison LOONA"
In the midst of getting to know more about LOONA, I'd come across what would be known as "LOONA The Ballad" - or as the below featured teaser video titled "La Maison LOONA" (Uploaded in "31 May 2019") - and realising that it was an unreleased album!
All knowledge I have of this album and its status is thru loonatheworld.fandom.com (top image via), and schooled via various fanmade YouTube videos directly addressing this matter.
THE INFORMATION WE KNOW THUS FAR:
LOONA the Ballad was a planned (concept) ballad album, teased since the release of "one way" from yyxy’s "beauty&thebeat" (on May 30th, 2018), with the audio posted above, for your audio reference.
A total of three songs were previewed in the teaser seen/heard up top, out of an unrevealed number of tracks for the album, which was originally planned for "May of 2019". In the video itself, on the final image was a cryptic message: "Delayed but someday".
The three tracks were:
- "Daydream" (Crystal Ballad)
- "Stay With Me Babe" (Hyper Ballad)
- "Unknown title" (Bliss Ballad) – reminiscent of yyxy's music style
The above audio for "Stay With Me Babe" - also known as "Hyper Ballad" - is the hidden track from the limited A version of the repackage album [X X], while the audio below is for "Daydream" - also known as "Crystal Ballad". I'd previously featured these in my Introduction to LOONA's [X X].
SO WHAT HAPPENED:
The album was scrapped by LOONA’s then-producer Jaden Jeong after a "disagreement on the importance of the LOONAVERSE in future releases" (There were reported words posted to the public to that effect, and I'll attempt to post direct from the source when I come across them)..
Jaden Jeong has since parted ways with BlockBerry Creative (whether he "resigned", or he was "fired" was not announced, to my knowledge. I suspect there might have been a media announcement in Korean, but...). Credited as the creator of LOONA and the LOONAVERSE, Jeong exited BBC somewhen after "Butterfly" [X X]-era, and before "So What" [#]-era started.
(Above instrumental demo for "Crystal Ballad" by ZSunder is not an "official release").
I started this blog-post addressing the chronology of "what happened" by whom and from when, when I realised regardless of the behind-the-scenes machinations of creators versus company, this simple thought persisted: This album would have been about music and songs, and without the benefit of music video(s), might not have necessarily addressed the LOONA-lore, unless it's about the Korean lyrics, which for all intents and purposes might not service the international listeners and theorists, although one can argue the average listener might be oblivious to it ... But perhaps LOONA is not your "average Kpop group", are they? That said...
WILL WE EVER SEE A RELEASE?:
Fast forward to "2021", would we ever see the release of "LOONA The Ballad"? Has the time and era passed? Are the songs still relevant in LOONA's discography? Are there any litigatious or pre-existing contractual aspects we do not know of? Will we see a "retrospective"-release when the time is suitable? I do not have concrete answers, sorry.
Throughout their career - from 2016 until now - there had been numerous instances of music videos, dance practices, and filmed projects fans know of (seen at their fan events), or mentioned by members of LOONA, but will we ever see them? Or have we simply gone past the eras, to be "looking backwards", and creating a situation were fans could "compare". I certainly am guilty of that, in my mind, although my preferences are my own...
For now, this is a "footnote" in the long illustrious career and discography of LOONA, and may we celebrate their upcoming Releases and Successes, than lament what we "nearly had".
As of this blog-feature publication, we are counting down to literal days to the release of 이달의 소녀 LOOПΔ 4th Mini Album [&] (scheduled for 2021.6.28 pm6 KST), and with the 3rd trailer "&3" just dropped, there's only FORWARD to go up and beyond, and I cannot wait!
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INTRODUCING LOONA
LOONA & on TUNESTALKSG
LOONA on TUNESTALKSG
— 02+ (@KHJLOOKING) December 7, 2021
UPDATED: Olivia Hye's VLIVE on Feb 18, 2022 has 'confirmed' what had been suspected but still hoped for through the years ... R.I.P. #loonatheballad.
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