Korean soloist Kang Daniel has been in the public eye since 2017, when he placed first on the K-competition show Produce 101. As a result of the win, the dancer debuted as the “center” of 11-member boy group Wanna One, a brief but bright venture in third-generation K-pop. When the group disbanded in 2019, Kang slid into soloist status, releasing the EP color on me in 2019. Glow to Haze, Kang’s sixth mini album, is the chronicle of a once-radiant love in the process of fading. In lead single “Episode,” a moombahton drum rhythm and the soft groove of Kang’s vocals explore the unhurried start of a new attraction. In B-side “Love Game,” which Kang helped write and compose, the relationship has rolled into a toxic cycle: “We fight, we hurt, we break, we make/We’ll never stop playin’ this love game.” By the moody album-ender “Little Bit Lost,” which Kang also led lyric-writing on, the singer is contemplating his imperfect escape: “Wanna wake up in a new place (in a new place)/Where I can burn my youth.”