Kang Daniel has made his much-anticipated comeback with his first full-length studio album ‘The Story’, alongside a music video for title track ‘Upside Down’.

In the new visual, the K-pop idol makes his way through a myriad of vibrant sets, accompanied by a team of dancers. His journey starts in neon-lit a barbershop, before he heads to a rooftop carpark, and stops by a laundromat for the dance break.

“Just imagining it tires me out / Wanna know the reason, I don’t know / I feel like I’m the only one moving backwards / I need to change it back, turn everything around,” he sings on the new laidback track.

‘The Story’ features ten new tracks, all co-written by Kang, alongside contributions from labelmate K-R&B singer Chancellor, who features on the song ‘Mad’. The duo had previously teamed up in November 2021 on a remake of Epik High’s hit 2005 song ‘Fly’ for South Korean social networking service Cyworld Z.

Kang’s new album also includes appearances by sokodomo on ‘How We Love’, Dbo on ‘Loser’, as well as Korean-American singer and rapper Jessi on ‘Don’t Tell’. Other notable credits on ‘The Story’ include songwriter Brian Lee (Camila Cabello‘s ‘Havana’, BLACKPINK‘s ‘Lovesick Girls’) and frequent CIX collaborator Styalz Fuego.

‘The Story’ is also notably Kang’s first domestic release of 2022, as well as his first since concluding his ‘Color’ trilogy of mini-albums last year – comprising ‘Cyan’ and ‘Magenta’ in 2020, and ‘Yellow’ in 2021.

Meanwhile, Kang recently made his acting debut in the lead role of Disney+’s cop K-drama Rookie Cops, where he starred opposite A Piece Of Your Mind’s Chae Soo-bin. It followed the story of honours student Wi Seung-Hyun (Kang), who signs up for the police academy in the hopes of following his father’s footsteps.