On Someone Who Released a Resignation Letter as an Album

Saying you are quitting is usually done quietly.

You leave an envelope on a desk and walk out; you do not turn it into a song and release it to the world. SOYEON made those words her title track. It is her first full-length album, and it is called 'What a Wonderful Life'.

What we know

Item	Detail
Artist	SOYEON
Album	First full-length 'What a Wonderful Life'
Release	September 7, 6pm
Title track	'I Quit (Narr. GIAN84)'
Tracks	8
Credits	SOYEON took part in writing and composing every song · Groovyroom · R.Tee
Last solo release	First mini album 'Windy' (July 2021)

Narration, not a feature

The place GIAN84 fills is narration, not a feature. He is not singing but speaking.

SOYEON explained it this way. "I asked GIAN84, the most romantic person I know, to do the narration, and for the music video we referenced the feel of 2000s dramas to capture the romance of that time."

Bringing a non-singing voice onto a singer's album is a way of dividing roles. The song belongs to the one singing; the speech is handed to someone else. A webtoon artist's voice was laid over the subject of quitting a job.

A tracklist shaped like a resignation letter

The tracklist teaser released on August 28 took the form of a resignation letter. On a design recalling a 2000s CRT monitor, it read: "I hereby resign in order to begin the 'wonderful life' I can no longer put off."

The way the album was announced is a document format. The song list was laid out like a statement of reasons for resigning.

The eight titles do not point one way either: 'Bankroll', 'icebluerabbit', 'STAR', 'I Hate Vegetables Song', 'Amigo', 'Can't We Just Love', 'Sending Off Romance'. They move between rock and hyperpop, disco and band sound.

Romance as the keyword

The word running through the album is 'romance'. SOYEON defined it as "a damp, cool feeling, like the smell just before summer turns into autumn".

On the album title she said: "Whatever shape a life takes, when we are grandmothers it will all be remembered as a wonderful life."

She also gave the reason for writing the song. "Preparing for a stable future matters too, but I made the song wishing that the present we live in right now could be happier than anything."

Quitting does not only mean leaving a job. Read it as quitting the habit of postponing the present for the future, and the two titles connect — the words about quitting and the words about a wonderful life.

Tonight, like this

Start with the title track. Where the singing and the narration hand over is the first thing to check.

Then play the tracklist in order. Look for the point where eight songs of different genres bind into one album.

Last, set the album title and the title track's title side by side. Quitting and a wonderful life are the front and back of one sentence.

Someone who released a resignation letter as an album. 'What a Wonderful Life'.