Ready to reign K-pop charts, IU’s new single “Eight,” featuring Suga of BTS, was released Wednesday evening.

The much-anticipated song has been co-written and composed by the singer-songwriter and the BTS member, who’s not only served as a producer but also lent his vocal for the track.

Its title refers to the age of the two musicians, as both are 28 (Korean age). “As musicians of the same age, the two singers could relate to one another and create their own unique synergy in the song,” said IU’s agency EDAM Entertainment in a released statement. “Eight” follows IU’s 2019 EP “Love Poem.”
 

The uplifting song, which flourishes on nostalgic pop-rock band sound, blends IU’s soaring vocal with Suga’s soothing rapping.

IU explained that the self-reflective song continues the legacy of her age-themed songs such as “Twenty-three” and “Palette.” 

"If the previous songs used to take a form of an ‘essay’ through which I directly talked to listeners, ‘Eight’ is like a short novel that confesses my life as a 28-years-old by using a virtual figure and various metaphors,” wrote the singer in an introduction for “Eight.” 

“While I’m not sure whether it’s from my personal emotion or from the overall social atmosphere coming from the disaster, my 28 would be remembered by the recurring feeling of lethargy and longing for the ‘orange island’ where we felt freedom rather than sadness.”

Part of the song’s lyric reads, “Under the orange sun we dance together without shadows / There’s no such thing as a decided goodbye / Let’s meet on that beautiful memory.”

In a lead up to the song’s release, Suga also shared on his broadcast channel that the production process with IU has been very smooth, saying, “There wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth. Shortly after I sent the (song’s) beats to her, she sent it back with the melody.” He also added that he’s been listening to the song quite often after finishing working on it, while he rarely listens to the songs he’s worked on after they are completed. 

The musicians have pretty much kept the song in mystery, raising K-pop listeners’ expectations over the last few days. They’ve only released few teaser contents, including a cryptic teaser video featuring IU in a futuristic setting. The song’s accompanying music video switches between an animation and scenes featuring IU, where she walks into a futuristic room and puts herself into a trance to travel various phases of her life.

One of the most popular singer-actors, IU has scored multiple chart-toppers throughout her over a decade-long career, carving out her own niche in the small-screen as well. Most recently, she dropped “Give You My Heart” for the soundtrack of Korean hit drama “Crash Landing On You.”

This is not the first time that Suga, whose stage name is Agust D, has proved his producing prowess. He’s previously produced songs like “Song Request” by Lee So-ra, “Wine” by Suran, “We Don’t Talk Together” by Heize, as well as several numbers for BTS such as “Boyz with Fun” and “Ddaeng.” The BTS rapper is reportedly working on the group’s upcoming album.

By Hong Dam-young (lotus@heraldcorp.com)