Written by Esosa Zuwa, a writer.

D-Day is‌ Agust D’s manifesto to the self. It’s the thrilling conclusion in a sonic trilogy about breaking free from the burdens of society. Joined by the likes of longtime BTS producer Kyang Hyo-won (Pdogg) and producer Vincent Watson, Agust D, better known as Suga from BTS, provides thought-provoking social commentary and reflections on regrets.

The pre-release single “People Pt.2,” a collaboration with K-pop star IU, shows how change helps us discover new parts of ourselves, but causes us to lose others. The smooth, chill R&B track contains no intense rap to amplify emotions, but softens to show the fragility of love and how lonely it can be without it.

The album starts off boldly with the titular track “D-Day.” The melody remains uniform in its composition, but there are horns going off in the background, almost as if the song is warning the listener of something. It’s not our attention Agust D is trying to get, however: it’s that of his younger self. He’s reassuring that version of himself that even though the future will be hard, he’ll be all right. The song hangs onto the fleeting promise of youth and grasps at its fragile straws as adulthood looms near.

The album truly picks up with “Haegeum,” a title which contains a double meaning, one sonic and the other thematic. Haegeum is the name of a Korean string instrument, but the word is also used to describe lifting a burden on the human spirit and liberating oneself. The song begins with the sound of a haegeum before breaking out into an explosive trap beat accompanied by a quick-winded, intense rap. Alarms ring through the chorus, almost as if it’s creating a warning that what is to happen is quick, dramatic, and ultimately controversial. As a result, the song introduces a darker tone to the squeaky-clean, controversy-free composition of typical K-pop, even calling people “slaves to capitalism, slaves to money, slaves to hatred and prejudice, slaves to YouTube, slaves to flexin’.” These themes can also be found in “HUH?!” a meteoric drill-beat diss track for people who discredit others’ hard work and criticize them from the narrow lens they view reality from.

In the brain, the amygdala is one of the regions responsible for processing memories. Agust D urges his own amygdala to allow him to reminisce on the past without feeling intense pain in “Amygdala.” There is a gap between the person he has become—the identity that he has shaped—and the crucial memories he has suppressed. He wants these memories back, but does not know if he is strong enough to face them. He wants to feel something, wants purpose like a lotus reawakened, and this begs the question: to what extent do suffering and memory control our lives?

The album ends on a bittersweet but hopeful note, reminding us that no matter what, life goes on. “Life Goes On,” a soft jazz song with a melodic rap that samples and reimagines BTS’s 2020 title track of the same name, lets us know that we cannot stop time to enjoy life, but we can make the best of those fleeting moments. 

D-Day is ultimately a means of processing hard feelings, ones that border on traumatic. The newly minted thirty-year-old reflects on his twenties, touching on growing pains, dark relationships, mental health, and the dark side of worldwide success. It feels a little boisterous, ‌with some extra shock value, but it is ultimately healing. The album encompasses Agust D’s darker feelings, ones birthed out of extreme anger, trauma, and dissociation—but it also encompasses his liberation from these feelings.