"Sleepless Rainy Night" Released: September 22, 2017
A Flower Bookmark 2 (Korean: 꽃갈피둘; RR: Kkotgalpi dul) is the second coverextended play by South Korean singer-songwriter IU. It is also her sixth Korean-language extended play. The EP was released on September 22, 2017, by LOEN Entertainment under its imprint Fave Entertainment. Like her previous cover album, A Flower Bookmark features cover versions of nostalgic K-pop songs popularized from the 1960s to the 2000s.
Background and release
A Flower Bookmark 2 consists of cover versions of nostalgic K-pop songs popularized from the 1960s to the 2000s, including "Autumn Morning" (Yang Hee-eun, 1991), "Last Night Story" (Sobangcha, 1988), "Sleepless Rainy Night" (Kim Gun-mo, 1990), "Secret Garden" (Lee Tzsche, 2003), "By the Stream" (Jeong Mi-jo, 1972) and "Everyday with You" (Deulgukhwa, 1980s).[1] It was reported that IU personally approached the artists directly to ask for permission to remake their songs.[2]
On September 18, 2017, "Autumn Morning" was released to coincide with the singer's ninth anniversary.[3] The rest of the tracks were digitally released four days later, along with a music video of "Last Night Story" and a special performance clip of "Sleepless Rainy Night".[4] The physical release of the album was scheduled to be September 25, but was postponed to October 12[5] because the remake album was originally going to include "With the Heart to Forget You" by the late singer Kim Kwang-seok. However, due to the recent revelations surrounding his daughter's death, FAVE decided to remove the track from IU's album.[6][7] On January 6, 2018, IU unveiled a music video for the song, describing it as a tribute to the late singer Kim Kwang-seok. She shared, "As a loving fan of his music, I'd like to express my respect and memory to Kim Kwang-seok with this beautiful song sung with all my sincerity."[8][9]
Reception
Commercial reception
"Autumn Morning" achieved a perfect all-kill status two days after its release.[10] The song also peaked at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart.[11]
The Korea Herald said that the album lacked raw emotions, and IU's voice failed to bear the weight and complicated emotions of the originals.[13]Billboard's review of the album was positive, explaining that "IU's latest features six cover songs that takes the vocalist’s sound into bygone decades, delving into genres like folk and nu-disco to prove her worth as one of South Korea’s most formidable songstresses."[1]The 405 says that "isn't content to just mimic her childhood favorites, these are classic Korean songs completely re-imagined and recreated to into something undeniably 'IU'."[14]
^Hwang, Kyoo-jeong (2017-09-30). "매니저에 미루지 않고 직접 대선배에 리메이크 허락받은 아이유 인성" [IU personally asked senior singers the permission to remake their songs]. Insight (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-11-03.
