NCT DREAM Return Nov. 9 Without Mark, One Year After Beat It Up

NCT DREAM are back on Nov. 9 with their sixth full-length album, Dream After Dream, and it's the first one made without Mark. SM Entertainment announced the news on the 16th, and the group is now a six-piece: Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung.

The album carries 10 tracks, led by the title track "Boogie Woogie." It drops at 6 p.m. KST on all major music platforms, with physical copies out the same day. Pre-orders opened at online and offline stores on the 16th.

Mark's departure is the messy part of the backstory. His exclusive contract with SM expired in April, and he left NCT with it. NCT DREAM began as a teen unit in which members left once they became adults, and Mark was the first "graduate" before returning in 2020. That return made them seven again. Now they're six.

The turnaround is quick. The last release was the sixth mini-album Beat It Up, roughly a year ago.

A 10-year framing

NCT DREAM debuted on Aug. 25, 2016, with "Chewing Gum," so this release lands in their tenth-anniversary year. SM says the album looks back at the group's time and musical growth, and the title is meant to suggest "dreams that continue endlessly." The stated aim is to carry the passion and will behind the dreams they've achieved together toward new ones.

SM also pointed to the group's track record: major-award grand prizes, consecutive million-selling albums, and first and most-ever records at stadiums and domes in Korea and abroad. The agency asked fans to look forward to what the group does for its tenth anniversary.

The discography they're building on runs from "My First and Last" and "Hot Sauce" through "Hello Future," "ISTJ" and "BTTF." Whether Dream After Dream reads as a victory lap or a reset for the six-member lineup is the question the title track will start to answer.