One of the comebacks kick starting this week is Young K’s solo debut! Yesterday, DAY6’s bassist, vocalist and rapper made his first solo release with the single, Guard You, and the mini-album, Ethereal. This will become the last major release from the new solo act, as he is confirmed to be enlisting in the Korean military next month. Prior this this solo debut, we saw Young K participate in DAY6’s recent mini-album release, The Book of Us: Negentropy and in Even of Day’s (DAY6’s subunit) mini-album release, Right Through Me

Guard You takes on a rock sound, with a prevalent blend of synths to give off a sense of individuality from Young K’s usual releases as part of DAY6. But while I thought it was a decent track instrumentally, I personally wished Guard You had a much heavier and more intense instrumental. I felt everything that I will speak positively about in this song review will be enhanced to a whole new level had this been the case. That extra bit musically would have done wonders to this song. But nonetheless, what we got was still quite satisfying to listen to. I felt that Guard You was a song to get lost in. This effect would have been easier to slip into had the song been heftier in the instrumental department. But the effect was still there and I still liked Guard You for that factor, regardless. A memorable component of Guard You was the emotional and heartfelt energy, which derived mainly from the Young K’s strong vocals. This energy also did a good job of complimenting the lyrics, as well. His vocals also did a lot of captivating and he sounded really good throughout. The high note he delivered at the end was superb and well-executed. Overall, Guard You was a good song to listen to. It just could have gone further and this would have potentially made it into a better song.

It appears that Young K is a doomsday prepper in this video. But he is stuck in a hard spot when the actual threat comes. We seem him struggle in a moral dilemma for a second in the music video. He could either tend to his plants (I presume this would be related to survival and this would mean getting more food), activate survival mode so he can survive the incoming asteroids, or warn people of the looming threat. Well, to make sense with the lyrics, Young K decides to survive by activating his bunker’s survival mode. While it does sound pretty selfish, I am under the assumption that if he continues living, he can continue to ‘guard you’. That, or the ‘you’ he refers to are the plants and he wants to protect them no matter what (but that won’t really make sense with the decision he had to face mid way into the video). I thought Young K’s acting was really good in this video and this definitely helped made the video even better. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, with Young K surviving (but it appears that he might be the only one left on the planet).

Song – 8/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.6/10