Why Taeyang’s “Rise” is a Chart Topper

Chief Executive Producer Yang Hyun-Suk: “All songs on the album are excellent enough to be titles’ tracks (singles)”.

International Charts

Lead singer of BIGBANG, Taeyang, dropped his 2^nd full length album in four years entitled Rise on June 2 along with the music video for his lead single, Eyes, Nose Lips. The album immediately went #1 on iTunes in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan, while topping the R&B/Soul charts in UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The album currently stands at #11 on the US iTunes Album Charts. Four years were spent in the making of the album and YG Entertainment’s Chief Executive Producer Mr Hyun-Suk Yang stated that “All songs on the album are excellent enough to be titles’ tracks (singles)”.

‘Eyes, Nose, Lips’ Music Video

With his Eyes, Nose, Lips MV, Taeyang makes a statement by stripping himself off gimmicks and flashy elements yet for a minimalist adult-R&B approach. The video which has achieved just short of 1.5 million YouTube views just 24 hours after its release is seemingly shot in one-take and focuses on Taeyang’s emotional delivery. As the track progresses, so does the instrumentation and visual effects by way of a woman’s face on a billboard being set in flames before the intense bridge and final chorus.  

International Producers & Musical Styles

Rise is mostly focused on R&B but also incorporates hip-hop, dance and even gospel with 5 of the albums tracks co-written by Taeyang. Rise also features international producers Happy Perez, Boys Noize and The Fliptones in addition to YG’s in-house producers, TEDDY, Choice 37, DEE.P, PK and AIRPLAY.

Participation of YG Family CL of 2NE1 lends a small cameo on the dance track Body while fellow bandmate G-Dragon raps on the hip-hop/R&B track Stay With Me. G-Dragon also co-wrote 2 of the albums track including Tablo from Epik High, making this album a true collaboration and YG Family affair.

Not convinced?

Watch Taeyang’s Eyes, Nose, Lips for conviction:

 [vsw id=”UwuAPyOImoI” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Source: Direct Correspondence