Arirang by BTS

BTS is back with a new album in 4 years since the last group album Proof. As the biggest boyband made up of 7 grown up men in the world that is rapidly changing, it couldn’t have been easy to figure out where and how to re-establish themselves as one, so what I’m currently feeling is a mix of love and longing, respect and pity towards them, which I’ll explain later in this review. The title of the album is Arirang, which is a traditional Korean folk song with sentiments of love in its many iterations of joy, longing, sorrow, and resilience.

To start off, Body to Body is a grand opening and a perfect intro to Arirang and to BTS’ 2nd chapter. It encapsulates most of what the group is so good at - confident vocals, charismatic rap, flexible lyrics, stadium worthy sound and energy. The lyrics are about closeness - in love making and in crowd synergy, between two people and within the whole nation, while the sound seamlessly transitions from modern to traditional and back. Aliens is another track which I’d like to highlight as lyrically the most interesting and important to the album’s theme. While, to my taste, it doesn’t offer much sonically with scarce background music and excessive reliance on auto enhanced vocals, its lyrics tell the story most unique to BTS’ experience as a Korean band making it big in the western music market that all too readily fetishized them.

In rap-heavy Hooligan and 2.0, BTS talk about returning and resetting themselves in the music scene. Hooligan is BTS-que in its build up of rich and fun, if slightly sharp in transition, sound - there is old cinematic music, sounds of sharpening knives, and good old beat to which the rapline delivers verses and the vocal line excels in choruses. 2.0 is more repetitive and monophonic in comparison, with rapline surprising me by not saying much of anything in a smart or intricate way that they are more than capable of in their verses. FYA is fun for the lack of anything else that is notable about it. It features heavy breathing, auto tuned playful vocals, energetic verses and addictive repetitions in choruses.

No. 29 is an intermission lasting 1 minute and 37 seconds - the time it takes for the tolling of the Bell of King Seongdeok (known as the 29th national treasure of Korea) to dissipate. SWIM is the English title track with what could be the most universal lyrics about swimming against the currents of life and/or being neck deep in love (specifically with a girl). A lot of fans and some members noted how subdued and potentially boring it may be as the title of the performance famous BTS, but the impact of similarly unexplosive Spring Day, Life Goes On and Yet To Come proves otherwise. To me, SWIM is BTS’ best English song up to date because it’s mature, comforting, emotionally compelling and yet, easy to listen to.

Merry Go Round is a mellow track that is both somewhat personal and frustratingly general, where I only liked Namjoon’s part at the end. BTS do allude to the fact that fame and further pursuits got them on a kind of chokehold but don’t venture far enough for lyrics to be truly honest and simply draw parallels to regular experience of living in circles and not knowing the right answer. On the same theme, a generic band-pop infused NORMAL is about the group’s difficult relationship with fame, which is something their colleagues in the music industry can probably relate to. The track didn’t leave any particular impression on me. they don’t know ‘bout us is the coolest of this trio with its retro style musical inserts, delicious adlibs and voice play. It’s quite repetitive and too short but best reflects BTS’ acceptance of and confusion with their predicament in its sassy, simple lyrics.

Like Animals is generous in instrumentals, vocals and sound effects, which make for a pleasant listening experience. What I don’t pretend to understand is the point of the song lyrics-wise and its role within the album; it’s as if it was included for the vibes. It could be interpreted as in love making in its intensity or as in law of the jungle, where there’s an innate darkness in everyone, I guess. Both One More Night and Please are songs about romantic love, nice and easy to listen to. Please - the one BTS claimed to be about ARMY when it’s clearly not, and we cheered because there’s more than enough fan songs in their catalogue already - sonically reminded me of HOME, and apparently, it was the same for Namjoon. It reads more romantic compared to One More Night, which in turn sounds more dreamy.

Into the Sun is my favorite song in Arirang, reaching my heart whenever I listen to it, which I’d thought was no longer possible with BTS. It’s beautiful - the voice effects serve a purpose and enhance emotional impact, the vocals and adlibs are heavenly, the lyrics are meaningful, the transitions are somewhat Imogen Heap/Frank Ocean/The 1975/alike inspired. The song in its entirety sounds like something bordering on a modern classic, and Taehyung is a genius for this one.

Arirang is a solid album filled with group-only songs, no collaborations and members’ great contributions from the standpoint of a fan who waited for years (and maybe kept their expectations in check like me). It’s underwhelming from a critical lens as half of it is made up of short, average songs that, saddest of all, have little to say - so unlike what’s made BTS, the BTS we’ve known and loved. Now, to the most difficult part that may explain how we got here.

After watching and reading some interviews and discussions BTS have had about Arirang, it becomes clear that the members are still confused and full of contradictions as a group - what it means to be the biggest boyband in the world, what to say to the world and where they stand with the times. They consider trends by cutting songs shorter, when they could (should) have kept them longer for music’s sake - all the melodies and outros lost - precisely because they can afford to do so as the giants in the industry. They don’t follow trends by not actively participating in tiktok challenges and collaborative dances, which however harmless, would seem try-hard and unbecoming for their seniority. They don’t keep up with a k-pop formula by choosing not to reinvent themselves with fresh visual concepts and flashy hairdos and outfits, which turns focus to the music but makes for an arguably boring comeback in visuals that are a big part of the original appeal. They are essentially doing what k-pop is so notorious for by working with any big western name regardless of their moral standing and manufacturing a disgusting number of album versions. They talk about where they came from, which is significant and, according to them, one of few things they share but beyond that, no socially aware and poignant observation or message comes out from their music, the greatness of which is in big part owing to that. They reinvent themselves by being more honest about celebrity problems and explicit about love in their lyrics, which is not honest and in touch enough to be meaningful or relatable. Instead of bringing them closer to regular people and giving them inspiration, the military and time overall only dulled their sensibilities, which is all too common but such a shame.

All of which is to say, I empathize with the members because the position they find themselves in is far from regular or stable. At the same time, it’s a position of immense privilege, influence and power, where there should be no space for idleness (not necessarily physical which they ironically sacrifice easily but mental and intellectual) but more than enough resources. There was never a time when I wanted to shake and slap someone and embrace them hard at the same time because it’s also crystal clear that BTS still love music, the band and being together but are unsure of how and why to proceed. For now and at this point in their career, Arirang is a good enough introduction to what is, hopefully decisive and meaningful, yet to come.

P.S. When I first watched the SWIM music video, I was skeptical about having a white actress Lili Reinhart being centered in it despite not seeing BTS acting together for ages. This choice was deliberate though, and I got 2 interpretations of the mv to explain it.

In the 1st, working within a fan-idol dynamic, the actress signifies a fan who is struggling in life, while sailors are the BTS members who are by her side in a metaphorical sense. They watch over her, silently steering the ship and being a kind of invisible force in her life. She can feel them but unable to see their physical presence, she is actually lonely. At the end, she breaks a parasocial bond by breaking the chain on her neck, which also used to be her compass. She revisits the ship, which was their relationship and BTS’ entire story, as one of the precious fond memories in the museum of her life, smiling.

In the 2nd interpretation, with which I may be giving directors and BTS much grace if it wasn’t intended, has more to do with Arirang’s origin story. Looking at the mv from a historically and racially informed pov, a white woman acts as an outsider looking in at what for her is just an old story about 7 Korean men that had to cross an ocean to get to America and record Arirang. Even though she feels emotional, she can’t actually see nor live the struggle of these people, hence the story book on the bed side table. When it gets too much, she breaks the chain and returns to reality of seeing it as just a historical relic, the ship in the museum.