I Got a Boy

Release

After the group's label S.M. Entertainment revealed the group intended to return in January 2013, MBC announced on December 11, 2012, that the group would be receiving a separate broadcast depicting the album process in preparation of the album's release in January 2013.

The single track, "Dancing Queen", was released on December 21, 2012. The title track, "I Got a Boy", was released digitally on January 1, 2013. The full album was released on January 2, 2013.

Live performance

The first of the group's comeback performances began on January 3, 2013, on Mnet's M! Countdown. Seven members appeared on Mnet's Wide Open Studio program prior to their comeback performance, Yuri and Hyoyeon were not present as they were preparing to emcee M! Countdown. The group continued their first week of performances for the album on KBS' Music Bank, MBC's Music Core and SBS's Inkigayo on January 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Girls' Generation held an hour-long "Virtual Concert" broadcast live via Naver Music on January 5, 2013 where they perform "I Got a Boy", "Talk Talk" and "Dancing Queen". The group also performed five songs from the album on their MBC comeback special; Girls' Generation's Romantic Fantasy on January 1, 2013. The group also performed on KBS Hope Concert. The group performed "I Got a Boy" and "Dancing Queen" in Dream K-Pop Fantasy concert held in Manila, Philippines on January 19, 2013, making it their first overseas performance of both songs. On KBS Yoo Hee-Yeol's Sketchbook, the group performed "I Got a Boy", "Dancing Queen", and "Lost in Love". They performed their single "I Got a Boy" as part of the setlist on their Second Japan Arena Tour.

The album was officially tour promoted on Girls' Generation World Tour Girls & Peace, began on June 8th 2013 in Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul, South Korea, finished on February 15th, 2014 in Cotai Arena, Macau. The tour also promotes their third studio album, The Boys, officially.

Composition

Dsign Music, the group of famous composers that composed the hit song, "Genie", as well as the top composers of Europe including Will Simms and Sarah Lundback, and the composer from Korea, Young-Jin Yoo participated in the making of the album. "I Got a Boy" is an electronic dance song that mixes pop, retro, and urban genres. "Talk Talk" is the Korean version of Boomerang which was in the 2nd full-length album released in Japan, and the Korean lyric tells a guy who does not understand a girl’s heart should try to talk to his girl that it gives the feeling different from Japanese version while it has the same melody and arrangement.

"Baby Maybe", mixes lyrics written by Girls' Generation members Sooyoung, Yuri, and Seohyun that expresses the fluttering heart of a girl in love. "XYZ" with a powerful synthesizer pattern is also written by Yuri and Seohyun. The album also contains "Lost in Love (유리아이)", a duet by Taeyeon and Tiffany expresses the changes of heart that accepts the breakup with a lover as time passes. The track "Promise" is a mid-tempo soul ballad composed and arranged by British songwriter Joseph Belmaati in his debut collaboration with the group. The lyrics were penned by Mo-ul and contain a message for the fans. "Express 999" is retro pop combining 1980s new wave influences, and various genres. "Look at Me" combines organic beats, a playful melody, and easy-to-sing-along chorus. "Romantic St." is a swing jazz style song.

Singles

"Dancing Queen" was released as a pre-release single on December 21, 2012. "Dancing Queen", a remake of Welsh singer Duffy's song "Mercy" was recorded in 2008 as a comeback song after a nine-month hiatus, however plans were scrapped due to copyright issues and the group went with "Gee".

"I Got a Boy" was released digitally on January 1, 2013. The "I Got A Boy" music video and album were released simultaneously at 5 p.m. KST. The video, as well as the teaser in the "Dancing Queen" video, became the center of public scrutiny after several screenshots from the video circulated on the internet with Sunny's hat having the words "WELCOME MOTHERF★CKERS" printed on it.

Reception

I Got a Boy received generally positive reviews from music critics. David Jeffries from AllMusic called the album an "explosion," writing: "Fans will embrace it with open arms, while mega-fans should also clear some shelf space since the physical edition of the album was made available with ten different covers, one for each member of the group and then one with the whole crew." Jeff Benjamin writing for Billboard wrote that the album's musical styles "satisfy not only K-pop fans but also listeners of all types of popular music" with elements of "forward-thinking" genres such as EDM, R&B, and new wave. Hwang Seon-eop from South Korean online magazine IZM, however, was less enthusiastic towards the album's "experimental" styles and singled out "Baby Maybe" and "Romantic St." as the two better songs on the album.

A week after the release of "Dancing Queen," the song was number one on the Gaon Single chart. I Got a Boy debuted at the number two spot of Billboard's World Album Chart. They also placed 2nd on the Heatseekers Albums Chart and 23rd on the Independent Albums Chart. The album ranked 7th on Oricon Weekly Chart and ranked 22nd on Oricon Monthly Chart. "I Got a Boy" also rank first on Five Music Korean-Japanese Chart in Taiwan for two weeks in a row.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for I Got a Boy adapted are from album liner notes.