The Star (album)

The Star (stylized in all caps) is the first studio album of Japanese boy group JO1, formed through the reality competition show Produce 101 Japan. Consisting of songs from their previous EP singles Protostar and Stargazer, the album was released by Lapone Entertainment into four different editions on November 25, 2020, with "Shine a Light" as the promotional single. It features participation of South Korean producers and producing teams, such as KCKT, Coach & Sendo, 13, Hui, Yoske, and others.

To promote the album, the group performed in several awards and year-end music shows along with two solo performances by member Junki Kono on music YouTube channel The First Take. The group also held their first live streaming concerts titled Starlight and Starlight Deluxe, held on December 19, 2020, and February 20, 2021, respectively. The concerts amassed a total of more than 240,000 viewers from 40 countries and regions. The album debuted at number two on Oricon Albums Chart and Billboard Japan Hot Albums only behind BTS's Be. It also received a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for over 100,000 units in shipments.

Background and release
On October 5, 2020, seven months after their debut, JO1 held a press conference at the Esports Ginza Studio in Tokyo to announce the release of their first studio album The Star and first online concert titled Starlight. The concept photos for the album were released on the same day and showed the members in light-colored stars-studded costumes, expressing their "shining self" to continue the concept of their previous release.

The album was released on November 25 into four different editions, consisting of seven new songs and all songs from their previous EP singles, Protostar and Stargazer. The three limited editions (Red, Blue, Green) feature 15 tracks, including "Starlight", "Shine a Light", and another new song that is different for each edition. The limited edition Red comes with a bonus DVD featuring a talk segment with the members titled JO1 Party. The limited edition Green and Blue come with a photo book and an accordion card, respectively. The normal edition comes with a solo poster and features 19 tracks, including all new songs in the limited editions and JO1 version of Produce 101 Japan "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" and "Happy Merry Christmas". It is also available in digital format for streaming and digital download.

Promotion
To commemorate the album's release, JO1 held a live streaming event on their official YouTube channel on the release day. They were also featured in a special program on Music On! TV and released their second official Line stickers set. JO1 subsequently released performance videos for tracks "Safety Zone" and "Monstar", both directed by Naokazu Mitsuishi.

JO1 promoted the album by performing "Shine a Light" in several television shows, including the 2020 FNS Music Festival held on December 2, 2020. They also performed the song along with "Infinity" at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards Japan and the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) where they received the Rising Star Award and the Best New Asian Artist, respectively. On December 4, member Junki Kono performed an acoustic solo version of "Infinity" on the music YouTube channel The First Take. Due to the exposure from his appearance on the channel as well as the group's performances on the FNS Music Festival and MAMA, four songs from the album, "Infinity", "Shine a Light", "Monstar" and "Oh-Eh-Oh", reappeared in the top 100 rank of Oricon's YouTube Chart of the week. Kono's solo performances of "Infinity" and "Voice" were subsequently released as digital songs on January 13, 2021. On February 25, JO1 did their first performance in South Korea by appearing on M Countdown. They also performed songs from the album as the headliner for Tokyo Girls Collection for the second time in a row on February 28. To further celebrate the album's release, JO1 held a special exhibition titled JO1 Museum: The Star sequentially at six HMV Museums nationwide, starting from November 3 to December 6, 2020.

Singles
The album's lead single Protostar was released on March 4, 2020, which is also the group's debut release. The single was released as an extended play and features "Infinity" as the lead track. The single reached number one on the Oricon Singles Chart and Billboard Japan Hot 100, and received a Platinum certification by the RIAJ. Earning an estimate of 640 million yen, the single helped JO1 becoming the second best-selling new artist on the Oricon chart for the first half of 2020.

Stargazer was released as the album's second single on August 26, 2020. The single continued the group's number one position on the Oricon and Billboard Japan charts. Released with a concept about teenagers in distress, the music video of its lead track "Oh-Eh-Oh" features members of JO1 fighting against a mysterious group as high school students. Hui from the South Korean boy group Pentagon co-produced the song.

The music video of the promotional single "Shine a Light" was released on November 10. Directed by Yasuhiro Arafune, the concept of the music video was dubbed as "intersecting space-time". It depicts the members roaming around the same intersection in a fictional city, separated by time and era, with shining light as the only connection between the different timelines. The song peaked at number fifty-eight on the Japan Hot 100.

JO1 1st Live Streaming Concert "Starlight"
JO1 1st Live Streaming Concert "Starlight" is a virtual pay-per-view concert held on December 19, 2020, via Pia Live Stream. Lasting for two hours and twenty minutes, the concert also consisted of talk and game segments. The concert amassed an estimate of 120,000 viewers from 30 countries and regions besides Japan, such as the United States, Australia, China, South Korea, and Indonesia. The concert was broadcast on TBS' cable television channel TBS Channel 1 on January 31, 2021, with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and interview with the members.

The set list for the show was the following:
 * 1) "Shine a Light"
 * 2) "Monstar"
 * 3) "Kungchikita" (JO1 ver.)
 * 4) "GrandMaster" (JO1 ver.)
 * 5) "Happy Merry Christmas" (JO1 ver.)
 * 6) "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" (JO1 ver.)
 * 7) "Go"
 * 8) "Oh-Eh-Oh"
 * 9) "Tsukame (It's Coming)"
 * Encore
 * 1) "Be With You"
 * 2) "Infinity"

JO1 Live Streaming Concert "Starlight Deluxe"
JO1 Live Streaming Concert "Starlight Deluxe" is the second virtual concert by JO1 and was held on February 20, 2021. Unlike the first concert, it was live-streamed from Paju, South Korea. With a concept of traveling in space with the group, the concert featured a longer set list, a series of spacecraft-themed VCRs, and a live band. According to news reports, the concert was viewed by more than 120,000 people from 40 countries and regions, including Japan, the United States, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, India, and France. Band version of "Oh-Eh-Oh" and "Grandmaster" were later released as digital singles on August 8, 2021.

The set list for the show was the following:
 * 1) "Shine a Light"
 * 2) "Monstar"
 * 3) "Running"
 * 4) "Go"
 * 5) "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" (JO1 ver.)
 * 6) "My Friends"
 * 7) "Young" (JO1 ver.)
 * 8) "Voice"
 * 9) "Be With You"
 * 10) "Tsutaerareru Nara"
 * 11) "Safety Zone"
 * 12) "So What"
 * 13) "Grandmaster" (Band ver.)
 * 14) "Oh-Eh-Oh" (Band ver.)
 * Encore
 * 1) "Tsukame (It's Coming)"
 * 2) "Infinity"

Critical reception
Azusa Takahashi of Real Sound praised the group's rapid growth that is evident throughout The Star, especially in singing. She also mentioned that one of the album's charms is the amount of possibility shown from the wide range of tastes in the songs. Although some tracks have been performed in Produce 101 Japan, she described those songs as "cohesive while retaining the freshness of the time." To close her review, Takahashi stated the album is good in showing "factors that makeup JO1 as an artist", which are the bond between members, the "spices" found in the songs thanks to the uniqueness of the members, and gratitude to their fans.

Commercial performance
After its release, The Star debuted at number one on the Oricon Daily Albums Chart with an estimate of 114,560 copies sold. It eventually ranked at number two on the weekly chart after BTS' album Be with 158,333 copies sold and received a Gold certification from the RIAJ. The album also ranked at number two on Billboard Japan Hot Albums and number one on the sales component chart on the week of its release. The commercial success of the album also put JO1 in third place for Billboard Japan Artist 100 of the week, which was also the chart's inaugural week. By the end of 2020, the album ranked at number twenty-one on the 2020 Oricon Annual Ranking with 173,753 physical copies sold. Due to its release date didn't fall in the aggregation period in 2020, The Star was included on Billboard Japan album sales chart for the first half of 2021 at number ten with 195,255 physical copies sold, and eventually ranked twenty-second on their 2021 Year-End Hot Albums.

Track listing
"Starlight", "Shine a Light" and "My Friends" are common track 1, 2 and 15, respectively, for all limited editions.

Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Track listing is based on The Star normal edition.

Musicians

 * JO1 – vocals (all tracks)
 * Yoske – chorus (track 1)
 * Lee Min-young (Eastwest) – bass (1,2,6), drum (1,2), computer programming (1,2,6,10), guitar (6,10), piano (10)
 * Yeul (1by1) – piano (1,2), computer programming (1,2)
 * Mook – chorus (2,6,10,17)
 * Score (13) – piano (3), drum (3, 9)
 * Esbee – chorus (3,18), piano (18), drum (18)
 * Megatone (13) – guitar (3), bass (3,9,18)
 * Yhanael – Japanese translation (3)
 * KZ – MIDI programming (4), synthesizer (4), drum (4,15,19), bass (4,15,19), chorus (4,15,19), electric piano (15,19), guitar (19)
 * B.O – chorus (4,15,19)
 * Nthonious – MIDI programming (4,15,19), synthesizer (4,15,19), drum (4,15,19), bass (4), guitar (19)
 * Kim Seung-soo – MIDI programming (4), synthesizer (4), drum (4), bass (4)
 * Kim Hye-kwang – chorus (4), vocal editing (15,19)
 * Who's H – vocal editing (4)
 * Young Jay (KCKT) – bass (5), chorus (5,814), drum (8,14)
 * Buggy (KCKT) – drum (5), chorus (5,8,14), keyboard (14), bass (14), synthesizer (8)
 * Ven (KCKT) – synthesizer (5), chorus (5,8,14), guitar (14), bass (8)
 * Teito (KCKT) – chorus (5,8), vocal tuning (5), synthesizer (14,17), keyboard (8), bass (17), drum (17)
 * Kohway (KCKT) – chorus (5,8,14)
 * Minit – acoustic piano (7), synthesizer (7), electric guitar (7), bass (7), drum (7), string (7), sound effect (7)
 * Airair – acoustic piano (7), synthesizer (7), electric guitar (7), bass (7), drum (7), string (7), sound effect (7)
 * Lazier – chorus (7)
 * Onestar (Monotree) – chorus (9)
 * Ryan S. Jhun – producing (11), vocal directing (11)
 * Andrew Choi – vocal directing (11), background vocals (11)
 * Eunsol (1008) – producing (11), keyboard (11), bass (11), drum (11)
 * Seo Yi-sung – producing (11), drum (11)
 * Sun – tune (12)
 * Dono – chorus (12)
 * Coach – guitar (13), chorus (13)
 * Sendo – bass (13)
 * Yuki – chorus (13)
 * Ji Seung-gyu – chorus (13)
 * Bae Jae-seok (Solcire) – chorus (16), digital editing & tuning (16)
 * Jkun – guitar (17)
 * Ouow – producing (18)
 * Nile Lee – string arranging (18)
 * Yundak – piano (18), drum (18)
 * Last P – piano (18), drum (18)
 * Lee Tae-wook – guitar (18)
 * Yinail – string arrangement (18)
 * On The String – string (18)

Technicals

 * Osamu Shiota – recording (1–3,7–10,16–19)
 * Kim Min–hee – recording (4,5,6)
 * Jang Woo-young – recording (11,12)
 * Min Sung-su – recording (13)
 * Eugene Kwon – recording (14)
 * Kwon Yoo-jin – recording (15)
 * Gu Jong-pil – mixing (1–3,9,10,15–18)
 * Master Key – mixing (4,7,8)
 * Teito (KCKT) – mixing (5), asst. mixing (14)
 * Hong Sung-joon – mixing (6)
 * Jennifer Hong – asst. mixing (6)
 * Jeung Eun-kyung – mixing (11)
 * Park Seong-min – mixing (12)
 * Coach & Sendo – mixing (13)
 * Ko Hyun-jeong – mixing (14)
 * Lee Gun-ho – mixing (19)
 * Kwon Nam-woo – mastering (all tracks)
 * Jang Seung-ho – asst. mastering (9)

Locations
Recording
 * Sound Valley
 * Doobdooob Studio
 * 821 Sound
 * Studio A-tone
 * Studio Fine

Mixing
 * Klang Studio
 * Ingrid Studio
 * Mesunshine
 * Studio C
 * Koko Sound Studio
 * Team N Genius
 * Gaenari Sound
 * 821 Sound

Mastering
 * 821 Sound

Vocal editing
 * Kwang Sound

Visual

 * Cho Dae-yong (Rainbowbus) – album design
 * Shin Hyo jin (Rainbowbus) – album design
 * Shim Jee-hee (Rainbowbus) – album design
 * Min In-hong – style director
 * Takashi Kamei – photographer
 * VITA – retouch
 * LiNK-UP – retouch
 * Shohei Fujinaga – stylist
 * Cheeks – hair & make–up
 * Tamzin (Choi Young-joon) – choreography (2–4,6,7)
 * Sorr (AP) – choreography (5,8)
 * You Seung-hyun – choreography (17)