#i think i lost my halo ༺♱༻ discography.

[xohyeona]

༺♱༻ THE SOUND OF CERISE ༺♱༻

beginning with the promotional single, ENHANCED FLOWER, CERISE’s introductory album, GEMINI, paying homage to her zodiac sign, is raw in nature. with the title track, NEW, she introduces herself as an artist and embraces the idea of finding herself. she stated in an interview that she wrote the songs for GEMINI three years prior as a way to, sort of manifest her future, hoping that one day she’ll be able to live the life she writes about. NEW did well for a debut, garnering 15 million views in the first twenty four hours. the album sold 6,077 copies the day of release and 12,437 copies in its first week.

coming back 5 months later with KILL THE DAY, the album gained a lot more traction with its soft rock vibe. the title track of the same name received much more commercial success with many netizens saying that the style complimented her well and that she looked more comfortable on stage. CERISE even said that KILL THE DAY was one of her favorite songs she’s ever written. this album did better than her last, selling 35,729 copies the day of its release and reaching the 100,000 mark that week. this era has been marked as a “golden era” for her as she began to market herself as a stand-out artist.

she released LAST DANCE, LAST CHANCE in october of 2023 with the title track, LAST DANCE. with this album, she gained her first win on mcountdown and secured 2 more wins during promotions. while having a musical difference from KILL THE DAY, it was still received well by cherries and even non-fans. someone made an edit of the music video with the caption ‘female rage’ which went viral, gaining the song and music video even more popularity.

upon the 1st anniversary of her debut, CERISE dropped the digital single, RAISE A GLASS. the song serves as a thank you to fans and asks them to celebrate the milestone with her. the single wasn’t promoted as a regular comeback, instead just having a music video filmed on a digital camera. the video showed a more humane and childlike side to her as opposed to her mature image, even including predebut videos of her. despite the lack of promotion, RAISE A GLASS went viral and charted high for weeks due to the music video being heavily talked about and the song being used for sweet edits.

making an official comeback in 2024 with the mini album, BLACK SEA, this marks a shift in CERISE’s musical direction. with this album, she takes a much darker approach, taking inspiration from disney villains like ursula and mother gothel. she provides a dark and creepy aesthetic, making use of fire and the ocean. the album did slightly less as good than her previous comebacks solely due to the fact that the title track was completely in english and didn’t really favor the kpop market. korean netizens preferred other korean tracks from the album. however, the song garnered some traction in the western market, charting at #74 on the billboard global 200 chart.

[xohyeona]

༺♱༻ BELLADONNA ༺♱༻

BELLADONNA is CERISE’s first studio album, released on september, friday the 13th, 2024. the album is heavily conceptual with the first half of the album representing danger and the second half, betrayal. throughout the album, CERISE represents a dangerous and alluring woman, mirroring a belladonna flower.

this album completely skyrocketed CERISE into mainstream popularity, being praised for her aesthetic visuals and intricate sound. BELLADONNA debuted at number 7 on the gaon album chart. the music video for the title track, REBIRTH, reached 25 million views in the first 24 hours. the song also received 5 music show wins during its month long promotional period. BELLADONNA did well not only domestically, but internationally as well, reaching number 5 on the billboard 200 chart, along with being praised for its dark sound and visuals reminiscent of a24 films.

༺♱༻ TRACKLIST ༺♱༻

TAPE IT BACK TOGETHER

LUCID

REBIRTH

X-FILE

FEEL GOOD

calm myself

maybe?

roots

loveholic hangover (feat. lee mujin)

get it now?

༺♱༻ THE STORY OF BELLADONNA ༺♱༻

TAPE IT BACK TOGETHER sets the tone for the album, dark and angry. cerise expresses distain and bitterness towards someone, using she/her pronouns in question. she wants to use her for her own personal gain, break her down and tape her back to together. it introduces the type of character belladonna is portrayed to be, sadistic and evil.

LUCID is the most alluring song on the album. she’s welcoming you in, encouraging the listener to follow her and enjoy this moment. she uses whispers and a seductive tone to give that feeling of skepticism, which aligns with the first song of the album. her words are encouraging, but her voice and the previous context makes you wonder if it’s really the best idea.

REBIRTH is the standout title track. it’s haunting instrumental and bittersweet vocals mark it as a standout in cerise’s discography. the lyrics of this song define belladonna, with lines such as, i'm born with a fake smile; an illusion in delirium sheds light to my manipulated memories; i just keep lying to you; my pure face has been a lie, and, hate me, it's a blessing. it’s an honest warning that you almost don’t want to believe.

X-FILE embraces the evil cerise feels. this sets as the beginning theme of the album of cerise switching from feeling bad about her actions to not caring at all. in this song, she doesn’t care about how bad she is as along as she can keep her “love” around. her vocals are purposefully slurred at some points, emphasizing on her mental state, which isn’t good.

in FEEL GOOD, cerise snaps into reality a bit. she begins to question why she feels so satisfied with hurting others. what is causing this urge to do so? this is defined by the lyrics, i want to hurt you, my heart gets more twisted, and i don’t know why i’m smiling. she feels evil, but instead of hating it she’s numb to that feeling. she feels good doing what she does even though she knows she shouldn’t.

calm myself serves as an interlude in this story. she begins to realizes how far gone she is, feeling the need to “calm herself” the transition is also marked by the lack of capitalization on the album, followed by the rest of the songs. she thought that her destructive tendencies where healing her but she realizes that she was only hurting herself. the song is filled with self awareness, supported by the line, i had to coming.

maybe? switches the perspective a bit. cerise puts herself in the perspective of the person she’s hurting. it’s like she’s taunting and ridiculing herself for treating them this way. though the coldness she peaks into the line, maybe, brings back the careless feelings of the album.

roots feels almost intrusive. the instability in her mind serves as the root of her problems and actions. cerise uses a mixture of dull and painful emotions in her voice to display the emptiness she feels.

loveholic hangover is a soft ballad featuring lee mujin as a vocalist. this song serves as an honest conversation. cerise’s sings an apology, feeling the weight of her actions while seemingly admitting that alcohol played a factor. she reflects on the situation, blaming the lonely nights and tasteless love.

get it now? completes the story with one final question, do you get it now? do you understand now that you’ve heard the whole story, from her perspective, or are you still falling behind?

༺♱༻ ERA ༺♱༻

♱ to say cherries were shocked was an understatement. the album and the visuals gave psychological horror film and cherries were here for it. she said her visual inspiration were movies like maxxxine, ballerina, audition, and look away

♱ fans and even non fans were impressed with her styling for this comeback. her usage of gothic fashion, intricate makeup looks, and red and black color scheme really allowed her to stand out amongst others. one of her looks with a black heart drawn on her nose bridge went viral on social media. she was praised for doing something different in an industry where it’s usually frowned upon.

♱ when cerise was asked about what inspired this album, she talked about the artist who inspired her the most. “my favorite album is electra heart by marina, and it’s a concept album. she portrays a complex character and i was inspired to do the same. i don’t know if belladonna is an alternate version of me or a completely separate character but i wanted to tell her story through this album.” cue marina responding to a tweet with this clip captioning ‘love u 🖤’ and cherries losing their shit

♱ during the showcase for the comeback, she was asked which song was her favorite. she said that her top three favorites are roots, rebirth, and calm myself. roots is the song that’s most personal to her, she likes rebirth because it sounds and feels cinematic, and calm myself is her top favorite because of the instrumental.

♱ cerise actually got into a little controversy regarding one of the lyrics in x-file. with weed being illegal in korea and one of the opening line to the song being wanna take a puff of my joint?, netizens accused cerise of doing drugs and asked her to change the lyrics. she had to come out and deny any usage of illegal substances but also stated that she would not be changing the original lyrics. “why? because i don’t want to.”

♱ in celebration of their collab, cerise appeared on an episode of lee mujin service where the two performed loveholic hangover. cerise also sang covers of jam jam by iu, million dollar man by lana del rey, and new girl by finneas. they also revealed that cerise had randomly texted mujin three weeks before recording asking him to be on the song. she said that she asked him because his “voice is pretty and the song would be boring by herself.”

༺♱༻ STYLING ༺♱༻

[xohyeona]

I THINK I LOST MY HALO