Don't Mess Up My Tempo

Don't Mess Up My Tempo (stylized in all caps) is the fifth studio album by South Korean–Chinese boy band Exo. It was released on November 2, 2018, by SM Entertainment. Member Lay is featured in the Chinese version of lead track, "Tempo", marking his first appearance with the group since Winter EP, For Life (2016). It is available in four versions: Allegro, Moderato, Andante and Vivace, named after types of tempo. The album debuted at number one on the Gaon Album Chart. The album was repackaged as Love Shot on December 13, 2018. Background and release Don't Mess Up My Tempo is the band's fifth Korean studio album and sixth overall. It follows the band's first Japanese studio album Countdown, released in January 2018; their previous Korean release was the EP Universe, released in December 2017. It was announced in October 2018 that the album is the band's first since Ex'Act in 2016 (and its repackage Lotto) to feature Lay, who has focused on his own singing and acting career in China. Lay participated in recording the Mandarin version of the lead single "Tempo", and also appears in its music video. On October 21, a 30-second Tempo Concept short film teaser was released through their social media accounts, depicting them as a biker gang, and playing a short audio snippet of the album's lead single "Tempo", which Billboard describes as "starting off with a dramatic synth melody, pulsating beat and the phrase 'I can't believe.'" The group's social media accounts updated their avatars to red cube icons, and revealed a poster with a caption that reads: "Speed loving bikers enter the fragment of frozen time as they log into the red cube. Solving the given puzzle is the only route for all to escape. However, the bikers are unable to resist the temptation and reenter the cube." The caption also appeared in the interactive puzzle game "Circuit Exo", created for the promotional period which, consistent with the comeback concept, showing a motorcycle running around a mini car track formed as "EXO". In order to stop the motorcycle, fans were asked to enter the jersey number of the EXO member whose teaser has been released that day. Upon entering the correct number, the motorcycle stopped and a red cube appeared to hover above it, and clicking on it revealed exclusive teaser images.