Golden Age (album)

Golden Age is the fourth studio album by South Korean boy band NCT. It was released on August 28, 2023, by SM Entertainment. Similar to their previous releases NCT 2018 Empathy, NCT 2020 Resonance, and NCT 2021 Universe, Golden Age is part of "NCT 2023" project; which saw all current NCT members from several units collaborating on a full-length release. This time, the album features 20 members from three current units of NCT; NCT 127, NCT Dream, and WayV. The album consists of ten tracks with two singles released to support the album, the title track of the same name and "Baggy Jeans".

Golden Age is the first album release of NCT after the departure of three former members; Lucas, who departed from the group on May 10, 2023, after his hiatus since mid 2021, and Shotaro and Sungchan who were withdrawn from the group on May 24, 2023, to re-debut as a member of SM Entertainment's new boy group Riize in September of the same year.

Background and release
SM Entertainment announced NCT's fourth union project NCT 2023 on August 9, 2023, with the confirmation of the release of the group's fourth studio album Golden Age. It is the first NCT union project in a year and four months after the 2021 union project NCT 2021 Universe, which saw the release of the group's third studio album. All twenty current members of the group participated in the project, including Winwin who was absent from the 2021 project due to his personal schedule in China. The label also announced two singles which will be released to support the album, the lead single being "Golden Age", an all members track which was released on August 23, 2023, while the second single off the album is "Baggy Jeans", which saw the reunion of Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun, and Mark, the first five debuted members of NCT who participated in the group's debut single "The 7th Sense", released on the same date as the album.

Commercial performance
Golden Age debuted at number one on the Circle Weekly Album Chart in the chart issue dated August 27– September 2, 2023, with the debut sales of 961,463 units, making the album the fourth album for NCT as a whole group to top the chart. The album also topped the monthly chart of August 2023, with the first month sales of 955,109 units.