Stray Kids to release full-length album '5-STAR' early June

Boy band Stray Kids will be back with its third full-length album “5-STAR” (stylized as ★★★★★) on June 2, its agency JYP Entertainment announced Friday.

Themed around a popular group game, I am Ground, the three-minute teaser video released on Friday showed Stray Kids members each introducing themselves, with a different background.

The upcoming album will be the boy band’s first Korean release following the EP “Maxident,” released on Oct. 7, and “SKZ-Replay,” the third compilation album released on Dec. 21 last year.

Stray Kids debuted in 2017 as a nine-member group under JYP Entertainment. After Woojin left the band and agency in 2019, citing personal reasons, Stray Kids has been active as a group of eight — Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N. Almost all of the songs released by Stray Kids have been produced by 3RACHA, the boy band’s in-house producing unit consisting of three members: Bangchan, Changbin and Han.

The boy band’s two recent Korean EP releases, “Oddinary” (2022) and “Maxident,” have both seen international success, with the two albums both landing at No. 1 on Billboard’s main chart, Billboard 200, upon release. “Maxident” also became the first album released by JYP Entertainment to have surpassed 3 million album sales.

Stray Kids recently completed its second world tour, “Maniac,” with performances in Japan, the United States, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and the Philippines.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]