BTS Is Back . . . Is the Album Any Good?—A Review
Nearly three years since formally going on hiatus and over five years since releasing their last studio album, BE, the mega-famous boyband BTS has made a comeback with their latest album ARIRANG. The title references a sorrowful traditional Korean folk song about missing someone, a fitting name given how long the band has been away.
With such cultural context behind the title, many had the expectation that ARIRANG would somehow be the ultimate culmination of Korean identity. Those people became disappointed upon listening to this almost fully English record. In fact, the lead single “SWIM” has zero Korean words in it. Pushing aside arguments of “Koreanness” and what defines K-pop (an industry known for the variety of genres it incorporates into the music), the overwhelming issue I have with ARIRANG is that it’s . . . boring.
Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not intimately acquainted with BTS’s discography. As such, I can’t make informed comparisons between their old and new music, but I am a K-pop fan and a person with ears. ARIRANG is full of songs that fail to keep my interest and make listening through this album a chore. Instrumentals are generic; lyrics are basic; and song structures are uninteresting. If you’re looking to get into BTS now that they’ve returned, I wouldn’t recommend this as your starting point.
The opener “Body to Body” stands as the lone highlight for me, including part of a choral rendition of the album’s namesake folk song. Unfortunately, the other tracks do not reach this (albeit mild) high. Although I do enjoy “FYA” theoretically, imagining it as part of a mix made by a good (emphasis on good) DJ.
It’s not a good sign that my first thought upon finishing this album was “Well, I’m glad I’m not someone who waited years for this.” Better luck next time, I suppose.
