9 Years In, fromis_9 Just Released Their Most Personal Album Yet

fromis_9 stepped back into the spotlight on July 21, 2026 with the release of their second full-length studio album Glow ME — a 10-track record built from the ground up by all five members, and the most creatively ambitious project of their nine-year career.

The album dropped at 6 PM KST across all major streaming platforms, capping a period of anticipation that had been building since their last full studio outing, Unlock My World, in 2023. Three years is a long gap in K-pop, where annual releases are the norm, but the wait appears to have been well spent. Every member of the group — Song Hayoung, Park Jiwon, Lee Chaeyoung, Lee Nakyung, and Baek Jihun — participated in the songwriting and composition process, lending Glow ME a creative depth that sets it apart from almost anything else in their catalog.

The Summer Season's Most Personal Album

The album's concept is both simple and resonant: the journey toward discovering the most radiant version of yourself. Through ten tracks, fromis_9 explore the emotions that come with new connections and experiences — excitement, courage, hurt, comfort — and how those feelings ultimately shape and strengthen who you become. It's a concept that makes particular sense coming from a group now in their ninth year of working together.

"Each person's thoughts, experiences, and feelings naturally blended together, making this a much more 'us-like' album than before," Song Hayoung said in a statement from the group's agency, Ascend. The choice of words is significant. In K-pop, albums are frequently described as representative of a group's identity, but rarely does that description carry so much literal truth. For Glow ME, the creative involvement wasn't a token gesture — it was structural.

Baek Jihun, speaking to the thinking behind the album's overall direction, made the group's ambition explicit. "As we enter our ninth year as a group, we didn't want to stay in the safe zone," she said. That refusal to take the comfortable path runs through the album's more surprising creative choices, including a title track that moves further into Latin-influenced territory than anything fromis_9 have attempted before.

Title Track "Vitamin ME" Arrives Ready for Summer

The album's lead single, "Vitamin ME," arrives with the confidence of a group who know exactly what they're doing. Anchored by a rhythmic Latin groove and a melody engineered to stay lodged in your head for the rest of the day, the song delivers exactly what the title promises: a direct burst of energy and brightness, the musical equivalent of a vitamin on a slow morning.

In a crowded summer release calendar where every major act is competing for the same airplay and streaming charts, fromis_9 have made a calculated and stylistically coherent choice. The Latin influence gives "Vitamin ME" a contemporary edge, while the group's signature clean, bright delivery keeps it firmly in their own lane. Ascend describes it as "a vitamin-like summer song that brightens any moment when energy is needed."

fromis_9 are no strangers to summer dominance. Their 2025 mini album From Our 20's produced the title track "LIKE YOU BETTER," which held steady in the upper reaches of Melon's Top 100 chart for three consecutive weeks and earned the group the informal title of "Summer Queens." "Vitamin ME" signals that they have no intention of ceding that reputation.

A Track-by-Track Look at Member Creativity

What makes Glow ME worth exploring beyond the title track is the evidence of distinct individual voices across all ten songs. The album opens with "ETERNAL," a sweeping, emotionally textured track that establishes the album's overarching themes immediately. From there, the tracklist moves through a range of moods with a confidence that suggests the group knew from early on what this record was meant to say.

"Pocket Treat" and "Blue Heart" represent fromis_9 at their most playful and accessible — songs designed for quick connection and repeat listening. "Screen Time," a track Song Hayoung contributed to writing, takes a more grounded approach: a reflection on distraction, digital life, and the instinct to step back from constant noise. It's one of the album's more personal moments, and one of its most quietly effective.

"Teacher," co-written and performed by Park Jiwon, stands out as one of the album's bolder moves. It marks her first experiment with the afrobeats genre — a creative swing she had not attempted before. Park has been open about wanting to push herself artistically, and "Teacher" pays that instinct off. The track sits apart from anything else on the record in the best possible way.

Two unit tracks give the album its most intimate character. "Cold Blood," a collaboration between Lee Chaeyoung and Lee Nakyung, was described by both members as a daring attempt to move beyond their established comfort zones. The result is one of the album's most striking performances. "Why Do I Cry?," a duet by Song Hayoung and Park Jiwon, takes a different approach: emotionally honest and direct, with the kind of vulnerability that tends to become a fan favorite long after an album cycle ends.

Baek Jihun's closing track "DAY 1" functions as a statement of artistic intention — an expression of the artist she is working toward becoming rather than the one she already is, which gives it an unusual, forward-looking sincerity. "Wonderland" brings the journey to a warm, expansive conclusion, giving the record a sense of arrival that earns its runtime.

Nine Years of Growing Into This Moment

fromis_9 debuted in January 2018 after forming through Mnet's idol survival competition Idol School. In the years since, the group navigated agency changes and the broader pressures of a fast-moving industry, yet they remained a cohesive unit through all of it — a feat that speaks to genuine chemistry rather than contractual obligation.

By 2025, they had built something beyond a typical idol career. Their music had grown more personal, their performances more assured, and their connection with fans more grounded in genuine longevity rather than early hype. Glow ME is the clearest expression yet of where that trajectory has been heading. Allowing every member to contribute creatively isn't a marketing angle the group deployed for publicity; it's evidence of five people who have grown fully into their artistic voices after nearly a decade of work.

Ahead of the album's release, fromis_9 offered fans a preview of that creative mode through their involvement in Mnet Plus's Twin Mirror Show, where Lee Chaeyoung demonstrated makeup techniques inspired by the group's performance looks. The series — which also featured Jeon Somi — offered a more personal window into their lives in the weeks leading up to the comeback, and helped build anticipation in a way that felt organic rather than manufactured.

What Comes Next for fromis_9

Among fromis_9's fanbase, anticipation for this album had been building for months. The prospect of a full member-written record from a group that has visibly matured into its creative identity made this release feel different from the usual comeback cycle. What fans seemed most eager to hear wasn't just new music, but what it represented: a group stepping fully into authorship of their own story.

The summer market will test whether the group's aesthetic confidence translates into commercial reach. "LIKE YOU BETTER" proved that fromis_9 can compete at the top of the charts when the song is right. Glow ME, with its broader artistic scope and more distinctive sonic identity, is playing a slightly different game — one that might take longer to unfold, but could ultimately leave a more lasting impression on the group's legacy.

The album concept itself — Glow ME, the idea of becoming the most luminous version of yourself — resonates beyond K-pop fandom. For anyone who has felt the tension between who they are and who they want to be, the album's emotional core is accessible and genuine. For fromis_9, it may be the record they've been building toward for nine years. It sounds like it.