Close Your Eyes Confirms April Comeback: CYE Returns With Fourth Album

Close Your Eyes (클로즈 유어 아이즈), the seven-member boy group formed through JTBC's survival show Project 7, is returning with a new album in April 2026, their agency Uncore confirmed on March 23. The comeback marks CYE's first release of the year and their fourth project overall since debuting in April 2025. Uncore confirmed the group is "currently in the final stages of production," promising an album that "reflects the group's deepened identity and expanded musical spectrum," as reported by Allkpop on the day of the announcement. No specific release date, album title, or tracklist has been shared yet. The news arrives as CYE is actively on the road for their first world tour, "Beyond Your Eyes," following one of the most explosive debut years any Korean pop group has had in recent memory. In less than a year since debut, they crossed 1.2 million cumulative album sales, per Chosun's certified data.

Born From 17 Million Votes

Close Your Eyes came together through Project 7, a JTBC competition series that aired from October 18 to December 27, 2024. The show pulled contestants from across Asia and beyond, including South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, and Australia, with 98 competitors narrowed down to a final seven through public voting. Over 17 million votes were cast in the final round alone, according to JTBC's broadcast records, making it one of the most-watched survival show finales of that year.

The winning lineup, announced live on December 27, 2024, was signed to Uncore, a label formed specifically for the group through a joint venture between SLL and YG Plus. The group is contracted for three years from their debut date, making CYE a project group with a defined timeline. It is one of the more unusual setups in contemporary Korean pop: a finite window, massive fan investment from day one, and a debut date locked in before they had released a single note.

Three Albums, 1.2 Million Sales, One Year

Close Your Eyes debuted on April 2, 2025 with their first mini-album Eternalt, which sold over 310,000 copies in its first week. Their second mini-album, Snowy Summer, dropped on July 9, 2025, moving more than 200,000 copies on release day alone, according to Chosun's chart and sales tracking. By November, the group hit their career peak with Blackout, their third mini-album, which sold 570,000 copies in its opening week, per Hanteo's certified records. That single release alone pushed them past the million-copy mark for cumulative sales. The title track "X" became the biggest song of their career and peaked at number two on the United World Chart, the highest position of any boy group that debuted in 2025. The breakneck growth across three albums in seven months was something even veteran industry watchers didn't see coming. For a group still technically in their first year, those numbers represent a trajectory that most K-pop acts spend three or four years building toward.

The group also collected five rookie awards across major year-end ceremonies in 2025, including the Hottest Artist Award at The Fact Music Awards, the New Wave Artist Award at the TikTok Awards 2025, and the IS Rookie Award at the Korea Grand Music Awards. The recognition was industry-wide confirmation of what their sales numbers had already made clear.

Touring While Preparing the Next Chapter

Close Your Eyes kicked off their first world tour, "Beyond Your Eyes," with two nights at Olympic Hall in Seoul on January 31 and February 1, 2026. The tour then moved to Japan with stops at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo, Zepp Nagoya, and Zepp Osaka throughout February. Additional international dates in Canada, Malaysia, and Russia are still scheduled, meaning the group is both on the road and in the studio at the same time.

That balancing act is not uncommon in K-pop, but it signals confidence from Uncore. Keeping a group in the public eye with live shows while engineering a comeback is a high-wire act that only works if the demand is genuinely there. For CYE, the sold-out Seoul dates and swift Japan run suggest it is.

"Something Refreshingly New and Unexpected"

Member Jeon Minwook gave the clearest preview of where the group is headed in a February 2026 interview with CNN. "What I can affirm is that we've delved into a variety of sounds, so what we'll unveil in 2026 will undoubtedly be something refreshingly new and unexpected," Minwook told CNN. The quote is guarded by design, but the phrase "variety of sounds" is an interesting signal from a group that has already shifted sonically across each of their three releases.

With Eternalt leaning into a polished debut sound, Snowy Summer pivoting toward a warmer, summer-coded tone, and Blackout going harder and darker, CYE has shown a deliberate willingness to change shape. The April album being positioned around a "deepened identity and expanded musical spectrum," as Uncore described it, suggests that the pivots are not slowing down. We've been watching this group since their first music show appearance, and whatever they're building for April, the track record makes a strong case for paying attention.