Over a year after his collaboration track with RM of BTS, Gajah, Gaeko returns with single “Vacation” featuring vocalist, Sole. Gaeko himself flexes his own vocal skills on this track, foregoing his usual rapping in favor of melodic and mellow singing. Sole, a newly debuted R&B singer, paired up with the Dynamic Duo artist for this track. Gaeko’s laidback vocals plus Sole’s rich and sugary voice make “Vacation” a song you can just fall into.
Sole is a relatively new artist in the Korean music world, only debuting back in November of 2017. As the sole female artist under a collaboration of agencies, Devine Channel and Sony Entertainment, she sauntered onto the scene with song, "Ride." Her debut track featured THAMA, a male artist under the same labels.
THAMA had a big hand in "Vacation." He arranged the song, co-wrote with Gaeko and Sole, and also shares a production credit on the track with Sole.
As someone who feels in need of a vacation herself, I instantly fell for this track. So much in fact that I played it on repeat multiple times while at work. With an atmospheric and minimal instrumental backing, the track has a dreamy sound to it, as if the soundtrack to your escape.
The beautiful music video was filmed in Germany, and each shot looks like a scene stolen from a painting. It captures the sentiment of the song perfectly. As Gaeko and Sole sing, “I just wanna lay down and watch the sky,” we see solitary figures in a park, reading books or simply sunbathing. A woman (Gaeko’s wife, Kim Sumi, plays this role in the MV) waits on a platform and boards a train, leaning her head on the window as the greenery flashes by. She ends up in this park, sitting as the others do with her face tilted up to the sun, happy on her own vacation.
Gaeko definitely chose a pair of talented individuals to collaborate with on this single. He has a history of choosing esteemed artists, who exhibit unique skills in the music world, to make music with. In addition to the RM collaboration, he's also worked with Zion.T and HA:TFELT on "No Make Up," the title track from his solo album, REDINGRAY. He featured on Dean's track, "D(Half Moon)" which landed at No. 2 on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists Chart. In short, as a veteran performer, Gaeko shows that he is capable of paying it forward, by promoting and working with newer artists who he believes will thrive.
With "Vacation," I really enjoyed the change-up from Gaeko and always love his willingness to collaborate with other Korean artists to create new and interesting pieces of music. With the way things are going, I assume we’ll be hearing from him again in about a year and yet, I still can’t wait.