Chat-Shire | ||||
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EP by IU | ||||
Released | October 23, 2015 (see release history) |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 25:40 (digital) 31:56 (CD) |
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Language | Korean | |||
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Producer |
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IU chronology | ||||
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Singles from Chat-Shire | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Twenty-Three" on YouTube |
Chat-Shire (stylized as CHAT-SHIRE) is the seventh Korean-language extended play (ninth overall) by South Korean singer-songwriter and actress IU. The self-produced EP was released digitally on October 23, 2015, and physically four days later by LOEN Entertainment under its imprint LOEN Tree. This is her first original material release since Modern Times (2013).
Chat-Shire contains seven tracks in total including the lead single "Twenty-Three". It also features two CD-only bonus tracks ("Heart" and "Twenty Three") from KBS's television series The Producers where IU starred as a lead role, Cindy.
Following its release, the album was heavily controversial for the alleged use of Britney Spears' voice without permission in the bonus track "Twenty Three". Although she did not compose the music for the song, IU issued an apology for not checking the samples' sources for its arrangement as the album's producer. Furthermore, the lyrics for "Zezé" and its illustration on the album cover were criticized by the Korean publisher of the novel My Sweet Orange Tree for its reinterpretation of its five-year-old protagonist, Zezé. Amidst growing debate in the music community, the publisher later apologized for its failure to acknowledge "diversity of interpretation." The controversy surrounding "Zezé" attracted international attention with AbeBooks reporting My Sweet Orange Tree as the most searched for book on its site on November 5-6, despite the book being out of print in English for years. Meanwhile, South Korea's largest book store chain, Kyobo Book Centre, reported that sales of the book has increased 5.7 times over the period of November 5-8 when compared to sales over the November 1-4 period.