Solar (Taeyang 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 put much effort into enhancing his vocal skills as well as his 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 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. It appeared on the Gaon Chart at number 67 in its debut week and peak at 1 in the following week.

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

The video of I Need a Girl was released also on July 1, 2010. Both the music video and dance version video features Sandara Park as Taeyang's love interest and includes appearances by G-Dragon.

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 one. The music video had it own gothic theme, even of the music video there is an English version.

Tracklist

Standard Edition
No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Arrangement	Length
1.	"Solar (Intro)"	Choice37	Choice37, Taeyang	Choice37	1:01
2.	"Superstar"	Teddy	Teddy		3:11
3.	"I Need a Girl (featuring G-Dragon)"	Jeon Goon, Choi Gap-Won, G-Dragon	Jeon Goon	Jeon Goon	3:40
4.	"Just a Feeling"	Teddy	Teddy, Taeyang	Teddy	3:36
5.	"You're My"	Jeon Goon, Choi Gap-Won	Jeon Goon	Jeon Goon	2:48
6.	"Move (featuring Teddy Of 1TYM)"	Kush	Teddy, Kush	Kush	4:03
7.	"Break Down"	Teddy	Teddy	Teddy	4:02
8.	"After You Fall Asleep (featuring Swings)" (니가 잠든 후에; Neegah Jamdeun Hue)	G-Dragon, Swings	G-Dragon, Choice37	Choice37	3:46
9.	"Where U At"	Teddy	Teddy, Taeyang	Teddy	3:48
10.	"Wedding Dress"	Teddy	Teddy, Taeyang	Teddy	4:01
11.	"Take it Slow"	Taeyang	Taeyang, cat@lyst	cat@lyst	4:08
Total length:					38:04

Deluxe Edition
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Solar" (Intro)	1:01
2.	"Superstar"	3:11
3.	"I Need a Girl" (featuring G-Dragon)	3:40
4.	"Just a Feeling"	3:36
5.	"You're My"	2:48
6.	"Move" (featuring Teddy)	4:03
7.	"Break Down"	4:02
8.	"After You Fall Asleep" (featuring Swings) (니가 잠든 후에; Niga Jamdeun Hue)	3:46
9.	"Where U At"	3:48
10.	"Wedding Dress"	4:01
11.	"Prayer" (featuring Teddy) (기도; Gido)	3:37
12.	"Look at Me" (나만 바라봐; Naman Barabwa)	3:55
13.	"Take It Slow"	4:08
Total length:		45:52

Taiwan Special Edition
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Solar" (Intro)	1:01
2.	"Superstar"	3:11
3.	"I Need a Girl" (featuring G-Dragon)	3:40
4.	"Just a Feeling"	3:36
5.	"You're My"	2:48
6.	"Move" (featuring Teddy)	4:03
7.	"Break Down"	4:02
8.	"After You Fall Asleep" (featuring Swings) (니가 잠든 후에; Niga Jamdeun Hue)	3:46
9.	"Where U At"	3:48
10.	"Wedding Dress"	4:01
11.	"Take It Slow"	4:08
12.	"Look at Me" (나만 바라봐; Naman Barabwa)	3:55
13.	"Prayer" (featuring Teddy) (기도; Gido)	3:37
14.	"Baby I'm Sorry"	4:06
Total length:		45:52

Taiwan Special Edition (DVD)
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Look At Me" (Music video) (Chinese subtitles)
2.	"Wedding Dress" (Music video) (Chinese subtitles)
3.	"Where U At" (Music video) (Chinese subtitles)
4.	"Prayer" (featuring Teddy) (Music video) (Chinese subtitles)
5.	"I Need a Girl" (featuring G-Dragon) (Music video) (Chinese subtitles)
6.	"Look At Me" (Solar Live version) (Chinese subtitles)
7.	"Prayer" (featuring Teddy) (Music video making) (Chinese subtitles)
8.	"Where U At" (Music video making) (Chinese subtitles)
9.	"I Need a Girl" (featuring G-Dragon) (Music video making) (Chinese subtitles)

International Edition
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Solar" (Intro)	0:57
2.	"Superstar"	3:14
3.	"Prayer" (featuring Teddy) (기도; Gido)	3:41
4.	"I'll Be There" (English version)	3:19
5.	"Wedding Dress" (English version)	4:07
6.	"Connection" (featuring Big Tone) (English version)	3:31
7.	"Move" (featuring Teddy)	3:53
8.	"Where U At"	3:49
9.	"I Need a Girl" (featuring G-Dragon)	3:40
10.	"Look at Me" (나만 바라봐; Naman Barabwa)	4:00
11.	"Take It Slow"	4:22
12.	"I'll Be There" (Korean version)	3:15
Total length:		41:48

DVD
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Prayer" (featuring Teddy) (Music video)
2.	"Look at Me" (Music video)
3.	"Where U At" (Music video)
4.	"Wedding Dress" (Music video)
5.	"I Need a Girl" (featuring G-Dragon) (Music video)
6.	"I'll Be There" (Korean version) (Music video)
7.	"I'll Be There" (English version) (Music video)
8.	"Making Film 1"
9.	"Making Film 2"

Release history

Country	Date	Format	Label
South Korea	July 1, 2010	Digital download, CD	YG Entertainment Mnet Media
Worldwide	July 1, 2010	Digital download
Worldwide	August 19, 2010	Digital download, CD (International edition)
Taiwan	December 13, 2013	Digital download, CD+DVD (Taiwan Special edition)	Warner Music Taiwan

Solar (International)

Chart (2010)	Peak position
Gaon Weekly album chart	1
Gaon Monthly album chart	1
Gaon Yearly album chart	70

iTunes R&B charts worldwide

Country	Peak position
Canada	2
America	16
German	2
Japan	8

Sales

Chart	Amount
Gaon physical sales	50.000 + (Solar) 26,979 + (Solar Deluxe Edition) 30,000 + (Solar International) 105,000 + (Total Sales Korea) 16.000 + (Japan) 11.000 + (Taiwan)

Single Chart

Song	Peak chart position	Digital Downloads

	KOR
Gaon Chart
"I Need A Girl"	1	2,110,274
"Wedding Dress"	1	2,020,000
"I'll Be There"	1	1,144,411
"Where u At"	3	1,054,074
"Superstar"	4	824,127
"Just a Feeling"	6	664,542
"You're My"	7	450,103
"Break Down"	10	410,155
"Move"	11	311,220
"Take İt Slow"	13	221,344
"After You Fall Asleep"	17	170,520
"İntro"	24	76,263

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 Moon, Wan-sik (2010-08-26). "Taeyang's Solo Album Tops iTunes R&B Charts in US, Japan and Canada" (in Korean). Star News. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
↑ "Solar Flare Up: Big Bang's Taeyang's Shines Bright on Brand New 'International' Release". DFSB Kollective. 2010-08-25. Retrieved 2010-08-25.

External links

Taeyang

Studio albums	Solar / Solar International RISE

Extended plays	Hot

Singles	"Ringa Linga" "Good Boy"

Related articles	Discography Big Bang YG Entertainment

Big Bang

Big Bang

Albums

Korean	Bigbang Vol.1 Remember MADE

Japanese	Number 1 Big Bang Big Bang 2 Alive

Extended plays

Korean	Always Hot Issue Stand Up Tonight Alive

Japanese	For the World With U

Compilation albums

Tours