What is Taeyang's 'Quintessence'? His first full-length album in nine years

What happened

Taeyang’s fourth full-length album Quintessence was released through online music services at 6 pm on 18 May 2026. Star News reported that a listening session — an event where an artist plays a new album for press and talks through it — was held that afternoon at Cube Convention Center in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul to mark the release. Newspim reported that the session included a highlight medley of the album’s 10 tracks, with conversation between the songs.

Newspim reported that Quintessence is Taeyang’s first full-length album in about nine years, following White Night, released in August 2017.

At the listening session Taeyang said, “I have barely had a single day off until now. Before an album comes out, all kinds of feelings go back and forth. Today is my birthday, so I am especially happy to be able to give fans a present in a brighter mood than ever. Now that an album I spent a year preparing is going out into the world, I feel unburdened.”

The official music video for the title track ‘LIVE FAST DIE SLOW’ was posted on 18 May 2026 on the official YouTube channel of Taeyang’s agency The Black Label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB3W-k0kQ8U

Why is it trending?

The gap between full-length albums is the first thing to note. Newspim reported that Quintessence is Taeyang’s first full-length album in about nine years, following White Night, released in August 2017.

The timing is being discussed alongside it. Star News reported that BIGBANG, the group Taeyang belongs to, is resuming activities in 2026 to mark the 20th anniversary of its debut and will hold a global tour. At the listening session Taeyang set out his plans: “This is a big year, the 20th anniversary, isn’t it. I am starting a big project with my solo album, and after this I will be back with BIGBANG in many different forms, so I hope people will look forward to it.”

The names attached to the album came out with it. The B-side ‘WOULD YOU’ features members of a group from the same agency, ‘MOVIE’ is a song Taeyang said he had help with on the lyrics and ‘YES’ contains a sample of a song BIGBANG recorded with 2NE1.

What you need to know

• The album has 10 songs. Newspim reported that Quintessence contains the title track ‘LIVE FAST DIE SLOW’ along with ‘BAD’, ‘WOULD YOU’, ‘MOVIE’, ‘OPEN UP’, ‘LOVE LIKE THIS’, ‘YES’, ‘NOW’, ‘G.O.A.T’ and ‘4U’, for 10 tracks in total.
• On the album title, Taeyang explained: “‘Quintessence’ means essence, the core of a thing. While I was preparing this album, the words that stayed in my eyes and in my heart at the time were essence and core. Following that, the word I found was ‘quintessence’.” He described it as “an album that holds the process of searching for the essence, the question of what the true essence and core are, and the research and effort that went into how to put that into an album”.
• Star News reported that the title track ‘LIVE FAST DIE SLOW’ is a track built on a declaration about time lived intensely while Taeyang held to his own centre in a fast-moving reality. Taeyang introduced the song by saying: “We are living in an era that changes quickly, but I have come this far in my own direction and at my own speed, and this song holds the will and the thought that I will go on living every day at my own speed and in my own direction, burning myself up. I think it is the fastest song I have released so far.”
• On how he picked the title track, Taeyang said: “This time I did not have the idea of making any song a b-side. I worked with the mindset of making every song a main title track, so choosing the title track was difficult.” He added: “Two years ago, while I was travelling on a solo tour, I thought that when I came to work on my next album I should make the fastest, most exciting song.”
• The B-side ‘WOULD YOU’ features Tarzzan and Woochan of ALLDAY PROJECT, a co-ed group under The Black Label, the same agency as Taeyang. The Korea Herald reported their participation on 28 April 2026, citing the agency’s announcement. Taeyang said: “When I was working on this song, I thought that if these guys rapped on it, it would carry the freshness we used to have. So I asked Tarzzan and Woochan, and they gave it everything, which I was grateful for.”
• On the fourth track, ‘MOVIE’, Taeyang said: “I expressed the wistfulness of a film coming to an end as a love song. Tablo helped with the lyrics.” Tablo is a member of the hip-hop group Epik High, and The Korea Herald reported that he took part as a lyricist on three songs — ‘MOVIE’, ‘OPEN UP’ and ‘G.O.A.T’ — and is a former The Black Label labelmate. The same outlet reported that Taeyang said ‘MOVIE’ is the only song on the album he did not write lyrics for, and quoted him saying: “Usually I have a specific direction in mind and make many revisions, but Tablo’s lyrics for ‘Movie’ were already perfect. I recorded it almost immediately without making changes.”
• On the seventh track, ‘YES’, Taeyang said: “In the middle of ‘YES’ we sampled ‘Lollipop’, which BIGBANG and 2NE1 did together.”
• The Korea Herald reported that the opening track, ‘BAD’, was made with the American production team The Stereotypes.
• Asked for his answer on what the essence is, Taeyang said: “Once I actually started working on the album and the songs began to come out, I felt that the essence could not be defined in a single word.” He added: “I want to keep the attitude of continuing to look for it.”