Solar (album)

Solar is the first full-length solo album by Korean singer Taeyang, member of Big Bang. The album was released in two forms: the "Regular Edition" and the "Deluxe Edition" which is limited to 30,000 copies worldwide. The lead-single was "I Need a Girl" featuring his bandmate G-Dragon. On July 9, 2010, Taeyang's solo album Solar hit second place on iTunes' Top R&B-Soul albums chart in the United States and first place in Canada, the first time for an Asian musician.^[1] In Solar, Taeyang has put much efforts into enhancing his vocal skills as well as composing, co-writing as many as four songs ("Solar", "Where U At", "Wedding Dress", and "Take It Slow") and writing lyrics for "Take It Slow".

Taeyang's first international album, Solar International, is the first ever K-Pop music release to be sold worldwide on iTunes as both an audio and video album. The audio version (complete with a digital booklet) hit iTunes stores on August 19, 2010, while the video version (bundled with bonus, behind the scenes documentaries) arrived by September 10, 2010.^[2] The audio album combines both English and Korean hits from his past and present albums including "I'll Be There", "Connection" (feat. BIG TONE), "Wedding Dress" and "I Need a Girl (feat. G-Dragon)". On August 26, 2010, Solar's International album made it to fifth place on iTunes' Top R&B-Soul albums chart in the United States and Japan, and third place in Canada.^[1]

Singles

• Where U At (Featuring Teddy Park) was the first promotional single of the album. It was released on October 14, 2009. The song didn't enter the Gaon Charts, after him cancelling promotions.

The music video shows Taeyang dancing with 2 back up dancers (choreographers), Lyle Beniga and Shaun Evaristo, in an alleyway. Teddy Park's rap shows him wearing a leather coat, while tossing an apple in one hand, on a motorbike. Taeyang wears black with the dancers and then changes to white at the dance break. In the end of the video, the dancers walk away and Taeyang walks down an alleyway looking back at a girl (Wedding Dress prequel).

• Wedding Dress, with the genre of RnB, was released in November 2009, just a month after the release of Where U At, making it the second promotional single of the album. The song didn't enter the Gaon Chart but the video, however, has had around twenty-two million views on Youtube.

• I Need a Girl (Featuring G-Dragon), released on July 1, 2010, was the lead single of the album. It peaked at number 5 on the Gaon Charts.

The video of I Need a Girl was released also on July 1, 2010.

• I'll Be There was released on August 2, 2010 and also the second single of the album. It did peak on the Gaon Charts at number sixteen. The music video had it own gothic theme, even of the music video there is an english version.

Tracklist

Charts

Solar

Solar International

Sales and certifications

Release history

References