From feeling happy to empowered to tearing up, the album Manifesto: Day 1 by Enhypen is the perfect album to listen to, just like their other ones. Manifesto: Day 1 made its debut in South Korea on July 4, 2022. This album consists of their title track “Future Perfect (Pass the Mic),” three side tracks (“Shout Out,” “Paradoxxx Invasion,” and “TFW [That Feeling When]”), their intro song “Walk the Line,” and their outro song “Foreshadow.” (A title track is the song being promoted and performed the most on music shows.) 

Enhypen, also known as Enha, is a seven member K-pop boy group formed by BeLift Lab through an idol survival show called I-Land. This group consists of Lee Heeseung, Park JongSeong (Jay) , Sim JaeYun (Jake), Park Sunghoon, Kim Sunoo, Yang Jungwon, and Nishimura Riki (Niki). Through their hard work, they were able to debut as Enhypen, which stands for connection, discovery, and growth. 

In terms of the physical album, three versions of Manifesto: Day 1 have been distributed: D, J, and M. Each album contains the same amount of inclusions but categorized differently depending on the album version. It includes a CD (compact disc), a photobook (D: 92 pages, J: 76 pages, M: 80 pages), two random photocards (a signed polaroid if lucky), a message card from a random member, a tattoo sticker, a can badge, and a poster. Along with the three albums, each of them comes with a mini album dedicated for fans. The fan version includes a CD, a photobook (D: 48 pages, J: 52 pages, M: 52 pages), a folder poster, stickers, and two photocards. I believe the inclusions are fairly nice considering the albums’ prices (which range from $16 to $36).

This album is a continuation of Enhypen’s journey where they choose to create their own future instead of following what has already been set out for them. The album’s meaning represents their determination for their futures, a future where they do things their way instead of following the future that was set out for them. In their title track, “Future Perfect (Pass the Mic)” the chorus “pass the mic” refers to their resolve to always go forward and take the lead and the lyrics are a message for fans (known as Engenes) to follow along with their upcoming journey. However, there is also a secret message that wasn’t explicitly mentioned by Enhypen but was eventually discovered by fans. It is their desire to leave their past behind. “Kill the past, just get lost,” Niki sings in the pre-chorus. “Past” is speculated to be a reference to their traumatic experience on the survival show, I-Land, which subtly conveys the message that fans should steer away from bringing up this topic that may trigger uncomfortable memories for them.

“Manifesto: Day 1 is a story about boys that question the concept of success defined by adults and that will no longer live as they are told but instead search for their own answers. It’s about our own desire to live our life without being swayed by the world,” Jungwon says. 

The intro of the album, “WALK-THE-LINE,” consists of each member talking in their foreign language (English, Japanese, and Korean) during half of the song and singing the other half. Members share their pain and struggles of being forced to mature and see things through the eyes of adults at a young age; some members did not even have a full childhood. “To me, this line was a nightmare,” Niki says.  This “line” that Niki sings is the line that was drawn out of what they’re expected to do. Now, they’re going to draw a new line, a new world. 

An all-time favorite of mine is “Shout Out.” This song is really pumped throughout, just like what the title suggests. Enhypen’s vocals in this song are incredible, and the emo-indie rock song compliments them perfectly. This song, which was co-written by a member, Jake, is dedicated to the fans. “I remember when I first got the demo, the producers told us this song was going to be the song where we can really connect with our fans, so when writing the lyrics I was really imagining interacting with Engenes and performing in front of them. When I heard that my lyrics got chosen, I was very honored,” Jake says. 

The next song, “TFW (That Feeling When),” is a sweet song about youth romance, which is a nice change from most of their upbeat pop songs. Enhypen did a great job showcasing their versatile vocals in this song, sounding so lovely in comparison to their fierceness in their other songs. While listening to it, it’s hard to believe that these are the same people who sang that they wanted to “kill their past” (lyrics from “Future Perfect”). 

When I first listened to “Paradoxxx Invasion,” I didn’t like the song because of the heavy instruments. It’s reminiscent of  an old school hip-hop song produced in the 2000s. The song talks about what the older generations expect from the younger generation and how no one should live by those expectations. Enhypen is trying to tell us through this song that the older generation is in the wrong for believing that we should live their way in order to be happy. The message of the song is that we can still enjoy life and be content without continuing to live in the manner of the “old days.” As I listened to the song more frequently, I now adore it and can’t believe I ever disliked it in the first place. 

One of the biggest criticisms Enhypen has gotten from this album is the outro, “Foreshadow.” When the outro teaser was released, fans loved it and were most excited for that “song.” Unfortunately when it came out, it was not necessarily a song and received a great deal of backlash. Two of the members, Jake and Niki, talk for most of the song, and the portion that everyone was looking forward to most was only played briefly in the end. Fans, including myself, were disappointed. Whenever the outro comes up in my playlist, though, I would skip to the ending part from the teaser.

Just like every other album, Manifesto Day 1 has no skips with a powerful message behind it. From the music to the lyrics, everything is perfect. Enhypen’s goal in creating this album is to primarily convey the idea that they will work together to create a new world without being told what to do in order to achieve “success.” They create a new line to disregard all of the standards they had to follow in the past.