Agust D released his last installment of the trilogy ‘D-DAY’. The album came out last week and managed to break the Hanteo record for most sales in a day by a solo artist. Let’s take a closer look!
D-DAY
We start off with ‘D-Day’. This is a very cool opener. I’m digging the autotuned chorus and the fire rap. The lyrics are really cool and there’s a couple of digs to the haters.
After that comes the title track ‘Haegeum’. The term haegeum has a double meaning. On the one hand it is an instrument, but as intended in this single, it stands for breaking boundaries, or allowing something that is forbidden. You can also hear the instrument in the backing instrumentals.
In the single Agust D continues his fight against capitalism and he does it while spitting absolute facts. I like how focused the rap is and how sick the beat is.
The first featured artist is none other than J-Hope on the single ‘HUH?!’. This track was inspired by the Drill rap from Chicago. The chorus is the repeated phrase ‘What the shit do you know about me?’ which creates such a cool chorus where you can really feel the frustration.
Up next is ‘Amygdala’. The amygdala is the part in the brain that stores trauma. The heavy autotune along with the trap beat create a very hazy listening experience. It reminded me a bit of brain fog. The lyrics are kind of heartbreaking, so go check that out here.
Up next
‘SDL’ brings us a more laidback beat. We’re going towards a more R&B Hip-Hop combo. Adora has some lovely backing vocals on the track. This is such a smooth track, I love it.
The following track was pre-released. ‘People pt.2’ featuring IU came out at the beginning of April and we wrote about it here.
‘Polar Night’ samples the track ‘About 30′ by the late singer Kim Kwang Seok. These lyrics are next level and I like how the boom bap rhythm of the 80s really lets you focus on the delivery of the lyrics.
After that comes the ‘Interlude: Dawn’. This is such a beautiful instrumental. Suga is a fantastic composer and this allows for a brief rest after a lot of anger.
Next up is a very exciting collaboration between Agust D, Woosung from The Rose and Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. ‘Snooze’ is such a beautiful track. The combination of the talent of these three people is just on another level. This actually sounds quite nice after listening to the ‘Interlude: Dream, reality’ from his first album.
The closing track is ‘Life Goes On’. This is an interesting one. On BTS’ album ‘BE’ there was the track ‘Life Goes On’. This is Agust D’s interpretation on Suga’s verse. What a soft ending to a very emotionally heavy album.
Go listen to ‘D-DAY’ by Agust D here on Spotify.
