Akdong Musician: Final Thoughts

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

Today marks the end of our time with Akdong Musician and I’m sad to see them go. Final Thoughts are rarely scripted but there was no need to extend myself for what has clearly been an enjoyable collection of songs. You likely know what the overall discography ranking is by now. Albums Summer Episode, Sailing and Happening, right after the drop.

You’re tuned into An Album a Day. Show start.

Hey y’all, February is Black History Month and I’m participating in activities the remainder of this month with Black Into K-pop! Black Into K-pop (BKC) is a coalition, cohort, and community of Black K-pop podcasts coming together during the month of February, to collaborate with each other in a variety of ways. You can visit https://blackintokpop.tumblr.com/ to learn more about the members and view our calendar. One upcoming event that you can definitely participate in regardless of ethnicity is the Goodpods app takeover on February 10, 2021.

Goodpod’s mission is simple -- making it easy for people to find great podcasts by following their friends to see what they’re listening to and for podcasters to grow their audiences through word of mouth recommendations. It’s a social media platform exclusively for podcast content. How cool is that? Download the app, follow my profile, Multifacetedacg, and check out some of my favorite podcasts outside of the Hallyu Wave.

Last thing before we get started. BKC wanted to let you know about an awesome giveaway we're doing right now to uplift Black podcasters in the K-Pop fanbase. We're giving a one hundred dollar Amazon gift card to one lucky listener. All you have to do to enter to win is to head to Podchaser and leave a review for any BKC podcast (or an episode of their podcast) in the month of February. We've made it really easy for you with a list of all the BKC podcasts. Just go to podchaser.com/bkc and start leaving reviews to enter. Again that's podchaser.com/bkc and you could win!

Onto the music, onto the music!

In 2017, AKMU released two songs to add to your road trip playlist with their July 20th release, Summer Episode. The two songs, “Dinosaur” and “My Darling” are upbeat and feel like the energy of summer, but I remember “Dinosaur” promotions the most from that year. And for what it’s worth, it was lovely of them to have given their fans and general listeners three seasons of music to enjoy, as hiatus was inevitable. Lee Chan-hyuk after all had mandatory military enlistment that began that September. While he served the South Korean Marines, Lee Su-hyun had solo schedules in radio and television.

When it was time to come back together, the duo released the eclectic “Sailing” on September 25, 2019. This album sounds nothing like their past albums, all the while staying true to their unique sound and colors. The 35 minutes of playtime skips to-and-fro between pop, folk, Americana, and rock genres. By the time I reached the third track on the 10-track album, I found myself excited about what the next song could possibly sound like. It was hard to set an expectation, but the course could be trusted, much like the experience of sailing. You step onto your boat, feeling it adjust itself to the waves, and set sail into whatever may come.

And if November 16, 2020, was any clue, their latest release, “Happening,” is a sign of something to come along the lines of “Sailing.” The single album is edgy and a potential prelude to a dynamic comeback. I can only hope for another live album, too! If you have time today, listen to the Sailing Tour live album and sing along to what you’ve learned through their discography exploration with a smile. “This is reality! Reality - ality - oh!”

K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for these albums and the complete discography for Akdong Musician is a 10. An absolute, unmatched 5 for the first time in A3Day history -- my usual rankings wouldn’t do. What they bring to the music scene is an understanding of each other’s musical strengths, their capabilities together, and longevity that will surely stand the test of time. They are a phenomenal group and my heart’s happy to have experienced their works with you, listeners!

One more thing! The A3Day giveaway is still rounding up entries. I’l...