Hollow

About

In 2025, Stray Kids used their third Japanese mini album, <i>Hollow</i>, to sing and rap about the highs and lows of life as an active, successful K-pop group, exploring feelings of emptiness despite success and defiant pride in the face of criticism across five tracks. Stray Kids released <i>Hollow</i> in the middle of their global dominATE tour, eight years into their career. The context is vital for a self-produced album that gets emotional but never strays far from Stray Kids’ signature high-energy bravado or the buoyant urgency of the J-rock sensibility from which it occasionally borrows. Title track “Hollow” is the most explicit in the album’s exploration of a deep loneliness, not easily shaken. “I embrace everything and run, but why do I feel hollow?/Loneliness haunts me no matter where I am, I’m alone,” Han sings in the chorus, shining some light on the realities of life as a hard-working K-pop idol. In the rat-tat-tat of “Parade,” Stray Kids keep marching, for themselves and their growing fandom, in spite of any criticism (“Who’s still whispering?/I don’t care, I’m walking even bigger and more confidently”). The theme of persevering against hardship is made more tangible on the energetic fan song “Never Alone” (“Lightning is not scary/If we hold hands, we STAY, together, forever”). “just a little” slows things down in its request for one last moment with a lover, while “宿命” (“Fate”) finds electric-guitar-driven deliverance in the form of Stray Kids’ relationship with fandom STAY: “Even if I’m alone/I’m always by your side.” Notably, <i>Hollow</i> marks the first time all tracks on a Japanese Stray Kids release are original Japanese releases, rather than songs translated from a previous Korean- or English-language version into Japanese. As is common, Stray Kids’ production team, 3RACHA (composed of members Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han), participated in the production of every track on <i>Hollow</i>.

via Apple Music