Monthly prompts are a tool utilized by many creatives. Writers, artists, musicians, there is something refreshing about having a challenge to complete to really get the creative juices flowing and push your creative limits. The Korean rock band Day6, formerly composed of 5 members, took this challenge to the next level and dedicated themselves to write, produce, and release a new song on the 6th of every month in 2017. These title tracks were also accompanied by B-sides, for a total of 24 songs released that year. This challenge led to a boom in popularity, introducing a wider audience to their sound, which is often compared to Japanese style punk rock.
These songs were later split up into two albums, titled ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Moonrise’, indicative of their tonally different instrumentation. Part one of this summation of parts, Sunrise, walks the listener through various stages of romantic and platonic love with sounds ranging from Beatles inspired rock to lofi synth intermixed with Japanese Rock.
Phase one, falling. ‘I’m Serious’ is a bouncy, drum and heavy look into the inner monologue of the protagonist who has found themselves falling in love with their friend. And despite their best efforts to show the object of their affection how they feel, it seems that she is utterly oblivious. The song plays around with dropping the instrumental to its base elements to allow the singer to say his thoughts clearly, even if she can’t hear him through her own denial. ‘Lean On Me’ takes the conflicted feeling of wanting to be there for your friend through a breakup while also being in love with her and sets it to a classic rock guitar. This drops into a much more punk rock sound once the vocals start and the protagonist wants nothing more than for his friend to be happy. Even if it isn’t with him. Finally, ‘I Wait’ is where the protagonist reaches the waiting point of these mixed signals and torment at the hands of love. Emulating sounds found in Japanese Rock and anime style openings, ‘I Wait’ is a plea for clarity, for the friend to be upfront with her feelings so that our protagonist might move on.
Phase two, the honeymoon phase. ‘Dance Dance’, ‘Say Wow’, and ‘My Day’ are perfect lyrical examples of how it feels to be totally and completely in love with your partner from the lens of youth. The ideals of Carpe Diem. Fast pace, ‘Dance Dance’ and ‘Say Wow’ are lively, using plenty of drums and guitar to make the listener bounce in their seat while telling their lover how amazing they are, how much they want to cherish these moments. My Day, not coincidentally named after the band’s fanbase, is almost more like a chant than a song. Yelling to the heavens that with her, the protagonist feels like they have the whole world in their hands, that they are supported wholeheartedly.
‘How Can I Say?’ leads us into a unique phase which isn’t terribly common in the realm of love songs. Phase Three, falling out of love. Here, with a killer drum solo we are introduced to the ideas of self hatred due to falling out of love with your partner. The lyrics and the instrumentation clash in a way that perfectly exemplifies that conflict. While the listener might want to head bang to the guitar, the protagonist is tormented by the desire to wish themselves back into a love they no longer have. Of course, there is only one place this can lead.
The breakup. Phase Four. Soft vocalization and guitar walk us through the protagonist’s thought process behind letting their lover go. ‘Letting Go’. That this is the only way that they can make her happy now. To not hold her back to a relationship that might make her truly happy. In a way, we as listeners see that the protagonist’s desire to protect their friend from a bad relationship returns from its appearance in ‘Lean On Me’. Though, this time it is they themselves that is causing their partner such sadness.
Phase 5 is broken up into two paths, both of which many a listener can relate to. In ‘I Would’, listeners are forced to listen to the protagonist lament over the things they wish they had been able to say through the course of the failed relationship set to an acoustic guitar. They express how much they wish they could go back in time and say it all in a chorus that explodes with drums to support the guitar. Regret. ‘Congratulations’ takes the listener to a place of anger in a very punk rock style. Feelings of betrayal and bitterness at their former partner being okay after a breakup that still hurts them. So okay, in fact, that they enter a new relationship. This is the perfect song to vent to, though there is plenty of unpacking to be done regarding the lingering feelings.
Finally, Phase 6. Moving on. ‘You Were Beautiful’ is a piano and guitar heavy rock ballad in which the protagonist expresses that despite their relationship only being memories now, that they were beautiful memories. And that is enough. In a similar stylistic vein, ‘I Smile’ walks the listener through the attempts the protagonist makes at remaining friends with their former partner, for nothing else than to make her happy, even if it hurts them deeply to be around her and pretend to be okay. ‘Goodbye Winter’ is where we find the end of the story. A rock ballad with synth inspirations, the protagonist is finally ready to say goodbye and let go. The listeners hear the protagonist express understanding about how they were holding their partner back, that their heart had been cold, and that now they need to let go. And they do.
In summary, while the order of the songs in the album proper do little to reflect this, the songs take the listener through six decidedly different phases of a relationship, and the variations that can be found within those phases. In its completion, this album is an abstract analysis of the life cycle of a relationship between two friends and how the choices we make can dramatically impact the dynamic of said relationship.