The Man Who Gifts a Song Every Birthday — WONWOO's 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter'

In three lines

• SEVENTEEN's WONWOO dropped a new song on July 17 — the artist's own birthday — as a gift to fans.
• 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter (봄, 여름, 가을, 겨울)' is a ballad that walks through all four seasons.
• It follows last year's birthday track 'Gogae (고개)' — WONWOO's little birthday-gift tradition.

Giving a song away — on your own birthday

Usually you get presents on your birthday. WONWOO does the opposite. On July 17, WONWOO's own birthday, the SEVENTEEN member handed fans a song: 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter'.

WONWOO did the same last year, releasing 'Gogae'. So it's a tradition now — turning the day of receiving into the day of giving. For fans, it's the strange, lovely feeling of getting a present on someone else's birthday.

A rapper singing a ballad

In SEVENTEEN, WONWOO is on the hip-hop team, usually the one rapping. But this is a ballad — sung, not rapped, and carried by WONWOO's low register from start to finish.

The texture of a voice that only flickers past you in the fast tracks steps right up to the front here. There's a moment where you think, 'oh, so that's what this voice sounds like.' It lands harder because the notes are pressed down gently instead of belted.

Four seasons in one song

'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter' never forces the drama. The arrangement and the vocal both move quietly, turning the seasons over one by one — from the flutter of spring to the hush of winter, folding time spent with one person into four seasons.

A Japanese version, '春夏秋冬', arrived alongside the Korean one — the same feeling folded into two languages.

Discovery note

Play it on a night when you suddenly feel the season turning — the kind of night when you open a window and the air has changed. While WONWOO's low voice moves slowly through the four seasons, someone from your past will probably drift up. It's the kind of song that stays longer precisely because it isn't flashy.

Just give it a listen, trust me.