Quarter Life
Updated: 1 day ago
⋆ Beomgyu, Taehyun & Hueningkai Sub-unit
⋆ Genre: Stadium Rock
⋆ Producing Credits: Krupa, Steve Manovski
⋆ Writing/Composing Credits: Jordan Shaw, Alexander Shilov, Steve Manovski, "hitman" bang, Chester Krupa Carbone, Hwang Yoo Bin, Taehyun, danke, Ellie Suh (153/Joombas), Soobin, Na Jung Ah (153/Joombas)
ABOUT/MEANING: “Quarter Life” captures the uncertainty of a quarter-life crisis, as the boys enter adulthood without the clarity or confidence they may once have expected to possess by now. Although they are told that these should be the “good times” of their beautiful youth, their actual experience is far messier: faced with loneliness, frustration and the pressure to know what direction their lives should take, they find themselves questioning whether they are making progress at all.
The song imagines this experience as being trapped inside a seemingly endless tunnel. Unable to clearly see an exit, the boys know they cannot remain where they are, yet cannot see where continuing forward will lead them. Still, they keep moving. Their perseverance comes not from knowing that everything will work out, but from accepting that clarity may only come somewhere further along the way.
Within minisode 3: TOMORROW, this gives the album’s hope a grounded counterpart. Tomorrow may contain promises and people worth moving towards, but reaching it still requires living through the uncertainty of today. Sometimes hope is simply refusing to stop inside the tunnel - trusting that not being able to see the way out does not mean there is no way forward.
LYRICS - ENGLISH TRANSLATION (translations by @translatingTXT)
A quarter-life
It's the phrase someone uses to call my age
The long, long tunnel that I've walked about a quarter of
It's such a long, long tunnel
They say these are the good times
They say my beautiful youth is only now
But it's just hard, I ain't happy at all
I ain't happy at all
I wonder if there's an end to this dark tunnel
Even if I shout, there's only an echo
Where am I supposed to go?
Amid unsolicited advice with no answers
Lonely, I'm left all alone
It feels like I'm walking in place, quarter-life crisis
In this life I've been thrown into without any exits
I can't see the end of this path
Every day is so suffocating
It feels like I'm walking in place, quarter life crisis
Woah-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Quarter-life crisis
Woah-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Quarter-life crisis
Don't wanna say
No matter how hard it gets, I don't wanna say
That this life is ruined, I fucked it up
Won't say "I fucked it up," no
NOTE: Some versions of “Quarter Life” replace the explicit “fucked it up” with “messed it up.”
This moment might be the darkest period, we don't know
Let's not stop now
I don't know where we're supposed to go
But we'll keep walking forward
It might be a bit dark right now
But we'll pull through as if we're wandering, quarter-life crisis
Don't look back, there's no turning back
Becoming an adult might just be
An answer sheet with no right answer
But we'll pull through as if we're wandering, quarter-life crisis
Woah-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Quarter life crisis
Woah-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Quarter life crisis
Woah-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Quarter life crisis
Woah-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
But we'll pull through as if we're wandering, quarter-life crisis
I don't know where we're supposed to go
But we'll keep walking forward
It might be a bit dark right now
But we'll pull through as if we're wandering, quarter-life crisis
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