BAE173, the nine-member rookie boy group who debuted last year, has finally released their first comeback mini-album, INTERSECTION: TRACE with "사랑했다 (Loved You)" serving as the album's title track. Maintaining their bright and colorful appearance, BAE173 progresses their “Intersection” storyline that was introduced in their debut. 

The title track "사랑했다 (Loved You)" is a dreamy EDM track that finds the boys reminiscing over a past friendship where they gave it their all but never received anything in return. Through the lyrics, it can be seen that the boys are looking for a trace of their relationships that they hoped would be eternal. In contrast to the emotional songwriting, the track has a classic EDM production with a cheerful but powerful guitar similar to the MADE era sound of BIGBANG and other second generation artists. This familiarity comes from the involvement of producer duo Duble Sidekick, consisting of lyricist Park Janggeun and composer Kim Jungseung (also known as Chancellor), has worked with legendary artists like SISTAR, Girls Day, Turbo, and g.o.d to name a few.

The mini-album’s highlights include “Green Light,” a future-pop dance record, and “I Can’t Sleep,” a minimalistic R&B song where both the vocal and rap lines come together to create a beautiful heartbreak jam. Members J-Min and Dohyun also shared their songwriting skills on the opening track, “#Trace.” The new mini-album is definitely a step in the right direction for BAE173. It is a smooth transition into more mature themes, which keeps in line with their concept as well. Checkout the music video for their new song below!