love me / leave me

all of day6′s albums are exceptional in quality (both lyrically & musically) but this one still felt somewhat different from the last two when i was first listening to it. the members said themselves in the genie interview that this album was meant to be darker, more empathetic, and have a more unified color especially compared to entropy. while i agree with all of that, i think with bc of demon’s emphasis on those complexities of human interaction that can’t be so easily expressed with words, the lyrics are so carefully constructed to reflect those small pangs & aftershocks of feeling we experience either by ourselves or in relationships with others - we so rarely see those outside of our own thoughts that it’s almost comforting in a way. the feeling i’d ascribe it is how you feel after a long, hearty cry - emotionally exhausted, but also reassured in a way.

each of the songs touches on a different, often unnoticed stitch in the fabric of human emotion (again, completely subjective opinion based on my interpretation of the lyrics):

day & night - on the agonizing confusion of a love/relationship that isn’t quite unrequited, but the perfect timing where the same intensity of emotion is felt (on a spectrum between day & night) is just slightly missed every time - like a seesaw that never balances in the middle where both people can see each other evenly

zombie - feel like this was pretty clearly conveyed in the english version, but becoming so trapped in a life where you don’t see any silver lining anymore, no longer trying to achieve a dream - in their place is a hollowness. just living to get through each day, and each day filled with the same schedules and obligations and pressures of life.

tick tock - on that waiting period (a “calm before the storm”) felt at the beginning of the breaking point of a relationship, when both the sheen & domestic comfort have faded and there’s just emptiness left behind. no explosive arguments, no pretend “we’re okay”, just the expectant tick-tock of minutes that used to fly by as you always had words to fill them with

love me or leave me - on the desperation of being so deeply in love with someone that you have endured a lack of reciprocity for so long - as a passive observer in an imaginary relationship with everything in your control except for the ending, the closure, the bridge back to reality. begging them for an answer, but already knowing that hearing it will shatter all of that control

stop - somewhat of a foil to day & night - the dread and resulting indignance of becoming hyper-aware of how many times stories, excuses, lies have been thrown at you, of how tightly you have twisted yourself into a knot from the very beginning that is impossible to untie without you being further suffocated by the other person, the one in control. wanting to snap, break out, end it without another having to endure another round of rationalization

1 to 10 - another version of imbalance, where you are willing to take on the “1 to 10″ (which in korean is used as an expression for “everything”) for another person, wanting to be the one to shoulder their pain instead of hearing them hide it behind an “i’m okay”..but not feeling that same intensity of care from the other person. facing a barrier that you can’t break through without being the very one that is the cause of their pain

afraid - the fear & sting that stems from loving someone so much you feel as if they are innocent and pure and you are the darkness, the risk, the possible unhappy endings greedily seeping in without either of you really realizing. being afraid that you are putting a cap on their happiness, their freedom to be themselves while they are oblivious and trusting and loving you