ARIRANG illuminates some of the more striking ways that BTS are unusual.
To start, there are not all that many pop stars. Of the few; the talented; the born beautiful; the tactically surgical; almost all got their first chance because some industry gatekeeper decided to pluck them out of a large lineup of the pretty-much-equally fantastic.
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Lots can go wrong with the plucking, but that’s all right, afterward is when things get interesting. Because it turns out the gatekeepers can’t keep the wheels spinning for long. Immediately, artists have to figure out how to connect to an audience and then nurture that connection. They have to choose collaborators and make good choices. Even and especially in pop, artistry dominates.
ARIRANG works in no small part because of the artistry of RM, whose fingerprints are found in every track. Before the group’s military hiatus began in 2022, he acted as the leader of the group — their primary ear and tastemaker. Now, with BTS’ comeback album — their fifth* overall (*don’t ask, and definitely don’t try to count) — the 31-year-old has earned a word in any conversation about the great pop minds of his generation.
The Bangtan Boys open with “Body to Body” which includes themes from the Korean folk song “Arirang,” the inspiration for the album title. It’s said to be a patriotic song about longing, sorrow, resilience, and separation, and like other choices on ARIRANG, it reflects the group’s maturing relationship to their country. Early albums spoke to the struggle of Korean youth, flirting with criticism of the government. Since then, their countrymen vaulted them onto a global stage, and the seven members of BTS all went through the national ritual of services. ARIRANG represents some of their warmest feelings to their homeland.
Following “Body to Body” is a four-song bulldozer of head-banging hip-hop. “Hooligan,” co-written by Jung Kook, is glitchy and infectious, built around a percussive break that sounds like knives being sharpened. “Aliens” is a flat-out banger. “FYA” goes jersey club. The vocal line — Jin, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook — carries the choruses while RM, SUGA, and j-hope work the verses, and the interplay between the two groups is sharp.
That sharpness owes something to the time apart. During the long hiatus, several members built solo careers that would have been hard to predict. SUGA completed a three-album trilogy as his alter ego Agust D, the last of which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned a world tour. j-hope headlined Lollapalooza — the first Korean artist to top a major American festival — and released Jack in the Box, trading his trademark brightness for something darker and harder.
You can hear those identities bleeding back into the group. “Merry Go Round,” co-written by SUGA and j-hope over a production from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, has a druggy, psychedelic sway. “NORMAL,” another rap-line collaboration, goes darker still: dreamy R&B in the vein of The Weeknd, and try not to faint, but they swear. That’s rare in K-pop, where broadcasting restrictions can effectively disqualify a song with profanity from TV promotion. BTS decided the song was worth more than the airtime.
The album pivots at its center. “No. 29” is an interlude built on the tolling of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, designated South Korea’s National Treasure No. 29 — a breath of calm before lead single “SWIM.” The single teeters right at the edge of saccharine, but it dissolves at exactly the right moment, more earworm than sugar crash.
From there, the back half gets a bit uneven. “they don’t know ’bout us,” co-written by Jimin, rides a cool hip-hop groove back to bangerland. “One More Night” is pleasant. But a track like “Like Animals” doesn’t stick after multiple listens, and closer “Into the Sun,” which features writing from V, is sunny and catchy and maybe a little shallow — the album choosing warmth over depth for its final word.
This is where ARIRANG shows what the hiatus actually changed. Seven members attack the music with a ferocity that feels earned and personal. The album feels more often like seven individuals with real chemistry than one polished unit. The solo years gave each member a sharper creative identity, and RM’s instincts hold the whole thing together — his collaborator list (Diplo, Mike WiLL Made-It, Kevin Parker, JPEGMAFIA) reads like the playlist of someone who listens to everything and thinks about it after. ARIRANG is the first attempt by those identities to share a room again.
Once plucked as a unit, they came back as individuals. The question for the next album is whether they can be both.
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