From Rose to Somebody: two albums that bring D.O.’s voice closer

Rose is the title track of Empathy, his first mini album from 2021. An acoustic folk song built around rhythmic guitar, with D.O. taking part in writing the Korean lyrics himself. Follow the courage to put feelings into words and meet the starting point of his solo albums. In the Korean version, listen closely to lyrics that carry a fresh, youthful emotion. There is also the pleasure of comparing it with the English version included on Empathy.

I’m Gonna Love You features Wonstein. A medium-tempo pop song over rhythmic guitar, it offers a different combination from the tracks D.O. sings alone. Even among the songs about love, the back-and-forth between two voices is what sets it apart. At its center is a confession: that this love came naturally from the start and will carry on from here. Listen for the point where Wonstein’s rap and D.O.’s vocals meet over the flow of the guitar.

My Love, with its lyrical guitar, calls to mind a night walk with someone you love. It is worth listening with your thoughts on time spent walking together rather than on a noisy event. After the preceding featured track, it puts D.O.’s voice back at the center. If you want to tell apart the many love songs on the same album, this time think not of the moment of confession but of the time spent with someone who is already by your side.

It’s Love is acoustic pop with a Latin touch. It reaches the feeling of opening your heart again after a disappointment in love. Within Empathy’s guitar-centered sound, it is a good track for feeling the difference in rhythm. Where Lost on Expectation deals with the pain of love falling apart, this song sets its heart on finding love again even after disappointment. You can also compare it with Si Fueras Mía, the Spanish version on the same album.

Dad is a minimal ballad that holds the feeling of looking at your father after you have grown up. From the preceding songs about romance, the object of emotion shifts to family. Listen with the wish to stay together for a long time at its center, and the album title Empathy takes on a wider meaning too. If there are feelings you rarely manage to say to someone close, it is worth slowly tracing the distance between the voice and the lyrics.

I’m Fine lays the act of asking after yourself over a jazz-tinged R&B guitar sound. D.O. took part in writing the lyrics together with Hwang Yu-bin and Kim Tokki. The gaze of Empathy, which loved someone and looked toward family, turns inward here. We chose it as a connecting point for listening to yourself for a moment before the start of the next album, Expectation. Before answering that you are fine, listen while thinking about how you really are right now.

Somebody, the title track of his second mini album Expectation from 2023, is folk pop built on an acoustic guitar rhythm. It tells the story of waiting for someone who will accept you as you are rather than a made-up version of yourself. Place it next to Rose from Empathy and the heart turned toward love sounds like two different sentences. It is where the two albums meet, moving from an active confession to the wish to be accepted comfortably.

Wonder is medium-tempo folk mixed with a buoyant reggae rhythm. It holds the hope that meeting someone special will change an ordinary everyday life into something like a story. If Somebody is on the side of waiting for that meeting, this song lets you imagine the change the meeting will bring. When an acoustic-centered list starts to sound the same, picking out the differences in rhythm makes each song stand out more clearly.

I Do is rhythmic acoustic pop that paints a scene of watching a meteor shower and wishing to be with the person beside you forever. Listen with the flutter of hoping they feel the same way at its center. Among the love songs on Expectation, it is the track that brings a concrete night scene to mind. Play it straight into Lost, which follows, and the gap opens up between believing in a shared future and feeling that expectation shaken.

Lost is a pop song expressing the anguish of a love you thought would last forever falling apart. Tense drums and a surging chorus push the emotion up hard. If you picked this list expecting only gentle guitar, you will meet a different kind of force here. The acoustic version also included on Expectation is a lean arrangement centered on guitar and bass. Listen to the drums and chorus of the original version first, then compare, and you can hear the same feeling of loss carried by different sounds.

Ordinary Days is slow-tempo pop that looks ahead to who we will become and what dreams we will have. Where Lost laid the loss of love bare, this song turns its gaze toward tomorrow and slows the breathing. Listen to it as a song that poses questions about the future rather than settling on answers. Even on days when everyday life feels fast, the calm voice in the album’s latter half makes a place to rest.

The View is acoustic pop set over guitar arpeggios. It deals with recalling someone you miss in an everyday scene and hoping that you, too, remain a beautiful memory for them. In this selection linking the two albums, we placed this song last. The flow starts with the confession of Rose, passes through family and self, and reaches the person in your memories. If you have listened to the end, you can look back on how much the object of emotion changed within the same guitar-centered music.