I’m back baby! After being the absolute laziest nugget in the world regarding blog writing, here I am. Never fear. The world still has Covid, Donald Trump is still the president (BUT NOT FOR MUCH LONGER FELICIA HAHAHA), and 2020 is still an exercise in pre-apocalyptic cosplay. However, November has brought along some gems. Of course it has, it’s Scorpio season, when all the cool kids are born. On a totally unrelated note, I’m 28 now. More exciting than my birthday has been the birth of my niece, who is incredibly small and squishy. Obviously, I can’t know this from seeing her, and I might not be able to do that for a long time. That thought hurts my heart and makes me cry, so November answered my sadness with another, admittedly less personally impactful but still great gift. Yesterday, K-pop superheroes BTS released their latest album, BE. If you’ve met me, heard of me, or been in a room I’ve recently been in, you’ll know that I rather enjoy BTS and their work. So, as the weekend rolled around, I settled down to listen to, no, to experience, the latest project from some of my absolute faves in the whole world ever. I didn’t quite expect how strongly it would hit me in my own personal feels, but more on that below. So, in the words of Jeon Jungkook (the youngest member, and yes, there will be a quiz), let’s get it:
Before the album:
*cracks knuckles and rolls neck*…this is my time. One of the main reasons I don’t know much about modern music at the moment is that I’m normally listening to BTS instead. Or watching their live performances. Or catching up on their reality show Run BTS. Or cuddling my Koya plushie (a character created by my favourite member- google it, both character and member are very cute). I know every member’s birthday, hometown, the names of their pets, and their feelings about mint chocolate. I am not joking. RM hates the stuff. And I wouldn’t even say I’m a hardcore fan, I don’t participate in streaming parties or own the official BTS light stick. But, I think it’s pretty safe to say I’m familiar with their back catalogue.
For all of you filthy peasants who have managed to avoid the single biggest phenomenon in pop music for the last few years, BTS (Bangtan sonyeondan, 방탄소년단, or Bulletproof Boy Scouts) is a seven-member group formed by a previously insignificant company (BigHit) in 2013, who have risen to become arguably the most popular music act in the world right now. The group contains 3 rappers- RM, king of my heart, Suga, and J-Hope (I’m going to stick with their stage names for this post, for the locals), and 4 vocalists- Jin, Jimin, V and Jungkook. They began with a strongly hip-hop oriented concept to…mixed results (bless ‘em they were children trying to be ‘gangsta’), and have since developed that style to incorporate much more straightforward pop sounds, along with forays into EDM, R & B, more classically Korean-style ballads, funk, and even trap (I think, not gonna lie I don’t know what that is). Given their astronomical level of success breaking onto the world stage in a way that no K-pop artist has been able to achieve and sustain before (calm down I know about Wonder Girls, Psy and Big Bang but it’s not the same), they have been able to become even more expressive and experimental (for K-pop) in the last few years. This is their second album this year, after the fantastic Map of the Soul: 7, and, while smaller in content, comes with just as much anticipation as anything that the group does. I believe this album was fully, or at least majorly, created during the Covid pandemic, hinting at a strikingly different tone from their work at the start of the year. I will warn you now, if you haven’t picked up on this already, I am a fangirl, and thus may not be able to hide my biases and personal joys at every point in this review. I will try, but there may be some block capitals.
Very First Thoughts
As always, the very first thoughts about a new BTS album consist of delighted squeaks and a lot of hand flapping because I get to hear new content from the boys. And see a new video too. The title track of the album, Life Goes On, is the one that gets that honour this time around. Upon first watch/listen, I have to admit that I was, dare I say it, underwhelmed. The song showcases the mellow, breezy, not-quite-but-close-to ballad side of the BTS cannon, garnering quite few comparisons among fans to 2017’s Spring Day, which funnily I also didn’t like for quite a while. In terms of the different styles that BTS tends to lean into, I’ve always preferred the louder, more rap-heavy, ‘hype’ type tracks, so this softer side often takes a little while for me to warm to. Both the song and the video are comparatively ‘stripped back’ for a lead track, with the latter featuring the members pretty much just hanging out together in a flat, before switching to a finale where the group gets to have their ‘boyband all in white sat on stools’ moment. I couldn’t help but wonder if this wasn’t a little too low-key for a lead single from a supergroup, but when it comes to BTS, the lyrics are always key to fully understanding the intent of a song (I am aware that this is how, like, all songs ever work, but trust, sometimes in K-pop it legit doesn’t go that deep). When I re-watched the video with the subs on, the lyrics hit me like a slap of kimchi to the face. The song is clearly about dealing with the mixed emotions that the pandemic, lockdown, quarantines, isolation and the world stopping have made us all feel. From Jungkook’s touching opening observation that “spring didn’t know how to wait/showed up not one minute late” to the chorus’ “Like an echo in the forest/the day will come back around”, the words of this song make the mellow tone of the melody a great comfort, and a very poignant experience.
As the album goes on
Once I understood that this theme of pandemic introspection was going to be fairly important, it was less surprising to me to hear what the rest of the album had to offer. The following track, Fly to My Room, pries these ideas open further, through lyrics such as “This room is my everything/then I might as well/turn this place into my world”. The tone is not quite as melancholic as LGO, with a more swaying, almost stomping rhythm, while still slow. The song’s more optimistic approach is a nice switch up, though it does contain quite heavy auto-tuning, particularly on rappers Suga and J-Hope, as does the title song. I’m not entirely sure why this production decision was made here, and it kind of smacks of a lack of trust in the non-vocalist members to sound pleasing to the ear.
The auto-tune is thankfully far less present in the following song, the full-on ballad of Blue & Grey. Whilst Fly to My Room feels like a more optimistic look at the opportunities of being isolated, Blue & Grey is much more acknowledging of the sadness involved. Lyrics like the English chorus line of “I just want to be happier”, or Jin’s “If in the far future I’m able to smile/I’ll say that I was once like this” admit to feelings of sadness, depression and desperation. Addressing these kinds of themes is one of the things that has massively endeared BTS to their fans, and it is legitimately heart-warming to hear this track that allows you to sit in the sadness that so many of us are feeling right now.
After the emotional dip of Blue & Grey, the album decides to turn swiftly on its heels towards more optimistic fair. Out of the following three tracks, Telepathy, Dis-ease, and Stay, it’s Dis-ease that interests me most, with a funky, summery, 90s hip-hop vibe that makes it very clear J-Hope was heavily involved (it sounds very similar to the material on his mixtape, Hope World). Ironically given the song’s title, and, you know, all of 2020, Dis-ease is actually a playful and upbeat track where the rappers get to shine the most strongly of anywhere on the album. RM, as the greatest human to have ever lived, gives us a rap where even this low-level Korean speaker could pick up two examples of wordplay. I enjoyed his mixing of the English word word ‘ill’ with the Korean ‘일’, pronounced ‘il’ and meaning ‘work’, to suggest that what causes sickness in society might be related to the careers we choose, or the toxic relationship we have to them. This might well be a completely moronic and incorrect interpretation, but hey, let me have my moment. Suga’s rap in this song is also mercifully auto-tune free, and mercilessly confident and smooth. Telepathy is similarly funk-based, but didn’t really hit me in the same way. Stay is a lot of fun, with a euphoric EDM style chorus, and as a song performed by RM, Jin and Jungkook, just so happens to contain my bias and bias wrecker all in one neat little package. Translation: bias means favourite member (RM), and bias wrecker your second favourite (Jin, Worldwide Handsome). Nothing to complain about there.
When the album finishes
The final track on this album is BTS’ latest smash hit Dynamite, their first song fully in English (if you discount RM and Jungkook’s collaboration with Steve Aoki, Waste It On Me), their first to top the Billboard chart, the second song by an Asian act ever to do so, and their first song performed as part of a Strictly Come Dancing routine. All equally great honours. I don’t need to say too much about this song, except to remind everyone that it’s just a fabulously good disco-pop bop with a delightful video where V wears the best suit in human history. Some have said (on that one Reddit thread I read) that it feels a bit out of place at the end of this particular album of thoughtfulness and poignancy, but I felt that it didn’t disrupt the flow at all. Far from it, to me it seemed like the group saying ‘OK, we’ve had our little therapy session, we’ve cried and we’ve moved through it, now- DISCO.’ This album has taken us through many different facets of the feelings we’ve all felt as the world shuts down and our lives have become smaller and lonelier. Wistfulness and acceptance in Life Goes On, sadness in Blue & Grey, optimism in Fly to My Room, renewed confidence in Dis-ease, and happiness at simple joys through the party of Dynamite. It’s not bombastic BTS, world conquerors here, but philosophic soft boys. It’s a smart album that uses their artistic developments and talents well to honestly respond to the world as it is now.
Where would you hear this album?
There is my fangirl answer to this, and my normal person answer.
Fangirl: EVERY DAY ON EVERY POSSIBLE PLATFORM AS I STREAM THE LATEST EFFORTS OF OUR KINGS.
Normal person: Also pretty much everywhere, because this is BTS bitch. Though the mellow tone of this particular album will be even more popular in Korean café culture than everything this group has already done.
Would it go on a playlist?
What kind of fan would I be if I said no? Though, for me, it kinda doesn’t need to, because I will just, as mentioned above, keep the album on hard rotation anyway. If I had to select favourites, it would definitely be Dis-ease, because I love whenever I can hear the rap line go hard, Blue & Grey because feelings, and Dynamite, because it’s made of glitter and sequins, just like me.
D’ya like it?
Do bears defecate outdoors? Does the Pope believe in transubstantiation? Of course I like it, it’s my boys. Though, aside from my diehard allegiance as a fangirl, whilst I will say that this isn’t my favourite BTS album, it is one for which I think I will always hold great affection. In this week where my family gained a beautiful new baby, I have had to reckon with the fact that, due to Covid and the various issues with taking time off from my job, that it might be quite a long time before I can give her a cuddle. As I said, this makes me deeply sad, so for BTS to have, right at this moment, given me an album that directly explores these same feelings caused by the state of the world, is exactly what I need. They have told me that sadness is OK, but that, of course, life will go on and its beauty will continue. This is why I love them so much, and how I will help myself through these feelings.
방탄소년단 보라해.
* For all translated lyrics, I used the YouTube channel Zaty Farhani. Many thanks. ** There is also a track on this album titled Skit, which is recorded audio of them reacting to their Billboard number 1 (I think). As it's not a song, and I can't understand it, I ignored it in my review. Seems like they're having fun though.
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