Wonpil: Unpiltered
Photo: JYP Entertainment
A lot has changed for DAY6’s Wonpil since his 2022 solo debut Pilmography, including becoming one of Korea’s most beloved musical acts; in spite of this, he’s remained the same humble and wholesome Wonpil we’ve come to know and love this past decade. And yet, his sophomore album, Unpiltered, proves that if you’ve got the grit and the nerve, quite literally anything is possible.
Fame and success come with a price: when the whole country is waiting on your next move, it can make experimentation scary. This is where the solo efforts of DAY6 really shine, allowing the talented members of the band to really push their artistic limits. In a word, Wonpil is a very emotive musician: he’s known for penning some of DAY6’s most gut-wrenching releases. He’s a sweet guy with an even sweeter voice who wears his heart on his sleeve (and Pilmography is a testament to that). And so when Unpiltered opens with a gritty guitar riff in “Toxic Love,” it might come as a shock to anyone familiar with Wonpil’s usual musical game.
“Highs and Lows” takes the energy in “Toxic Love” and harnesses it, adding on more guitars, anthemic vocals, melodramatic lyrics, and even Wonpil’s rarely explored lower register. For anyone who may have been missing the heavier sounds of DAY6’s earlier albums, “Highs and Lows” more than delivers: it’s unabashed rock, injected with Wonpil’s own personal enthusiasm. As a long-time fan of the band, he’s not the member I expected to release a solo like this, and yet, I am as thankful as I am pleasantly surprised.
The music video for “Highs and Lows” turns the song’s spark into a blazing wildfire, putting Wonpil’s acting chops to the test. It opens with him bringing a faulty engine to a mechanic, before shifting to him alone in a trashed bedroom, drinking himself insane and setting fire to his belongings as tears stream down his face. Scenes of him running around town in a drunken blur feel straight out of a 90’s grunge rock video, but things come to a literal crashing halt when he’s struck by a car, left to bleed out on the street. The video ends with a shot of the broken engine in Wonpil’s hands, in front of the gaping hole in his chest where his heart (the engine, as we now know) used to be. Truthfully, Wonpil has always been a rather astounding actor in any of DAY6’s more cinematic music videos (and his own theater experiences), but he’s outdone himself with this one. “Highs and Lows” as a song left me in awe, but “Highs and Lows” as a video left me straight-up stunned.
If “Toxic Love” and “Highs and Lows” weren’t enough to keep you on your toes, Wonpil switches things up again with the third track on the album, “Already Grown Up,” where he croons about the throes of adulthood overtop of a hip-hop beat. The album’s biggest curveball, however, comes in the form of “Up All Night,” a slinky, sexy bossa-nova-infused song that is exactly what you think it’s about. Everything from the percussive breakdown in the chorus, to the groovy guitar, to the cheeky lyrics, to the perfectly utilized harmonies, to Wonpil’s siren-like falsettos makes “Up All Night” a ridiculously obvious pick for the best song off the album—and maybe, if I want to be as bold as Wonpil, one of the best songs of his whole career.
“Step by Step” plays things a little safer but amps up the camp, bringing in bright horns, choral vocals, and a hearty guitar solo. “Hold My Love” follows a similar pattern while adding in Wonpil’s signature keyboard flair as he urges the apple of his eye to accept his affections. After an entire album spent dipping his toes into everything as un-Wonpil as possible, Unpiltered ends in the most appropriate way—an ode to Wonpil’s closest musical partner, “Piano.” While not necessarily my favorite song on the album—like I said, “Up All Night” is impossible to beat—“Piano” does feel like coming home, stepping into familiar shoes. It serves as a reminder that, yes, that crazy album you just listened to? It was me, Kim Wonpil, your local K-band keyboardist, that did it.
At the time of its release, I thought nothing would be able to top Sungjin’s 30 for me. It seems now that Wonpil took that as a challenge, and boy oh boy, did he rise to the occasion. In my review of Pilmography, I lovingly claimed it was “exactly the release I expected” from him; Unpiltered, on the other hand, is anything but. It couldn’t be more different, actually. And yet, despite every twist and turn in its tracklist, Unpiltered still has the same Wonpil heart and soul.