Jeon Somi, well known as the winner of the first installation of the Produce 101 competition series and a member of the series' temporary project girl group I.O.I, began to venture out as a soloist following the conclusion of group activities under her then agency JYP Entertainment. She eventually left JYP Entertainment and joined The Black Label and made her solo debut with the digital single "Birthday" and B-side track "Outta My Head" in June 2019.[1] Jeon made two comebacks following year-long breaks with digital singles "What You Waiting For" in July 2020, and "Dumb Dumb" in August 2021. In the press conference for "Dumb Dumb", Jeon shared that she had "spent the past year practicing and recording a lot of songs apart from "Dumb Dumb" ... and there's a lot more coming."[2]
On October 1, 2021, the singer uploaded an image of a pile of albums, with title XOXO and her name printed on them, onto her Instagram post with the caption "Soon to be yours x̷o̷x̷o̷."[3] On October 14, The Black Label announced that Somi is scheduled to make a comeback with her first full-length album XOXO at the end of the month.[4] In the following week Jeon revealed the release date and shared the tracklist of the album through her social media accounts.[5] The album was released for digital download and streaming on October 29, alongside the music video for lead single "XOXO".[6] On December 25, the music video for "Anymore" was released.
Carmen Chin writing for NME criticized the songs on the album for being "repetitive and uninspired" and stated that despite Jeon Somi's "immense musical talent", the album "fails to flesh out her identity". Chin also expressed disappointment in half of the short tracklist being made up of Somi’s previous releases.[7]
^Lee, Ha-na (October 14, 2021). 전소미, 약 3개월만 컴백 "이달 말 첫번째 정규 앨범 발매"(공식입장) [Jeon So-mi, comeback after about 3 months "First full album release at the end of this month" (official position)]. Newsen (in Korean). Retrieved October 23, 2021.
^"【APMA 2021】亚洲流行音乐大奖2021年度入围名单" [[APMA 2021] Asian Pop Music Awards 2021 shortlist]. Weibo (in Chinese). November 30, 2021. Archived from the original on November 30, 2021. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
^"2021년 11월 Album Chart" [November 2021 Album Chart]. Gaon Music Chart (in Korean). Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
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