Thoughts: ARIRANG by BTS
Album thoughts, not album review. I'm not sure I feel qualified to write an album review (what qualification am I even thinking of??), but I definitely have a lot of thoughts.
I'm going to write down those thoughts, then at the end I'll put down the initial ranking I gave the album on my list, the current ranking if it's changed since I ranked it, and my favourite song/s.
Full disclaimer: I am unashamedly biased. I love BTS, this is known about me. It's also my list and it's going to be biased since it's based on whether I liked the album rather than some kind of subjective analysis of production quality, lyricality, originality etc (not that they don't factor in). My point is I love music but I'm not an audio engineer or an expert.
HAVING SAID ALL THAT. I do try and consider the albums outside of my own bias, because I think it's interesting to consider them from that perspective. It's why (spoiler alert) ARIRANG is not sitting at number one on my list.
Overview
Some context! I'm going to assume if you're reading this you've got at least a baseline knowledge of who BTS are (a 7 member k-pop boy (man?) group from South Korea, and possibly the worlds biggest band right now).
A very real presentation I gave to my coworkers and would give again.
ARIRANG, released in March, is their 10th studio album. It's also the first album they released since they returned from completing South Korea's mandatory military service.
First Impressions & Overview
Sometimes when an album I'm really excited about I like to set the vibe when I'm going to listen to it. Headphones, no distractions, maybe a scented candle if I'm feeling fancy.
ARIRANG was BTS's first album since they all completed their mandatory military service, and as a certified card carrying ARMY since 2021 you can bet your ass I wanted to immersive myself in it. I wound up listening to it reclined on two camping chairs on my balcony at night, in my pyjamas, headphones on (no scented candle).
You will probably be extremely unsurprised to learn that my first impression of ARIRANG was that I loved it. The first half of the album is thumping, bassy, rap heavy songs that go right back to BTS's roots as a hip hop focused group. It sounds like if you took their Dark and Wild era and aged it in a barrel for 10 years, which I guess is actually exactly what it is. Then at the halfway point is No. 29, which is the sound of a large bell fading out for 1 minute and 39 seconds (more on that later).
RM stated in an interview that it's meant to signal the album mellowing out and calming down, and that's exactly what happens when they come back in. The second half of ARIRANG is an almost jarring switch up to softer, more vocal heavy and maybe more commercial sounding songs. I like both halves a lot but I will admit I was initially a little bit confused by the sudden shift. Both halves feel completely cohesive separately but together it sounds like half of two different albums put into one.
What Hit
For me? The return to a stronger hip hop sound was my favourite thing about ARIRANG. Pre-enlistment their focus was clearly on releasing more western focused, english pop songs which tended to put the rap line in the background.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Dynamite and Butter even if lyrically they're a bit nonsense. I can even get behind Permission to Dance even though (please don't come for me) I think it's probably their most boring song. They have a tonne of amazing pop focused songs in their discography (Boy With Luv should've been their first Grammy nomination and I'll die on this hill), but as someone who really enjoys hip-hop as a genre and the rap lines solo work it was awesome to hear them featured more prominently.
This leads me to my second hit for ARIRANG: J-Hope. Once again I am (literally) biased as he is my bias (k-pop fans get it), but this man carried this entire album. He has so many amazing verses on this album, and it's clear he was incredibly involved behind the scenes in pushing a lot of the things that make ARIRANG great.
You can really hear J-Hope's influence on ARIRANG, in parts it almost sounds like the first half at least was created around his specific sound and style of rap. His part in 2.0 is genuinely one of the best verses BTS has ever done.
Lastly: ARIRANG on vinyl. Full disclosure, I started writing this post approximately 40 weeks ago then never got back to it. In the meantime, I finally bought a record player!! I also had my birthday, where one of my very best friends bought me ARIRANG on vinyl (J-Hope edition, naturally). ARIRANG was the first vinyl I listened to on it, and when I did I had an epiphany.
ARIRANG makes so much more sense on vinyl.
One of my biggest takeaways when I first listened to ARiRANG (as mentioned above) was how the two halves of the album sounds great as individual collections of music but are quite jarring together, even with No. 29 bridging the gap. Not a deal breaker but I did wonder if maybe there was two full albums that got split in half and packaged together.
When I listened to ARIRANG on vinyl I had a completely different listening experience. The album is still split into two halves but now it was Side A and Side B, and the act of having to physically turn the record over made it all feel way more cohesive.
I don't know if I"m giving BTS too much credit with this epiphany. It's possible I'm reading into things and analysing too much. I also know that they are all extremely talented musicians who put a lot of thought and consideration to their work, so I also don't want to assume they didn't consider how ARIRANG would sound on vinyl. Even if it was an accident I loved it.
What Missed
Swim as the first single. Swim is fine, its a nice song. If you take the cynical view that it's meant to be the English lyric single to appeal to a western audience then it's a much better version of that than any of their previous entries. The music video is a little boring compared to their other videos but it's also fine. It made sense to me that it would be the lead single. Until 2.0 was released.
The fact that 2.0 wasn't the lead single off ARIRANG will piss me off til the day I die. I'm actually completely convinced based on asbolutely no evidence or research that it was meant to be the first single.
Aside from the fact that it is arguably a much better song, narratively it makes more sense. The lyrics of 2.0 are all about them coming back from their hiatus to reclaim their place at the top and starting this new phase of their career.
Lyrics and translateions from BTS Lyrics translations.
It's not subtle!! The start of the choreography literally has the members stretching like they're stiff from being away and preparing to be active again.
Not to mention the music video (which is amazing) is heavily inspired on one of Korea's most famous and iconic movies, Park Chan Wook's 2003 action thriller 'Old Boy'.
I'll get into this more in the next section, but ARIRANG was heeeeavily marketed as being inspired by, and an homage to BTS's Korean heritage. Having the lead single's MV based on one of Korea's most famous movies would be a perfect tie in.
Obviously I don't know what the plan was, but in my imagination there was a record label executive somewhere insisting that they go with the more western sounding Swim instead. This fictional executive wil be my nemesis for the rest of my life for missing the opportunity to have the perfect lead single for ArIRANG.
The marketing around ARIRANG's Korean influence. Second full dsiclosure. I'm not Korean. I'm Australian, and very white. I am not the person to have any kind of say or authority on whether ARIRANG or any album is "Korean enough", but I know it's something that's been disappointing for a lot of Korean fans so I didn't want to ignore it entirely.
Like I said above, ARIRANG was heavily marketed as being influenced by and an homage to the bands Korean heritage. The name itself 'ARIRANG' is a reference to a 600 year old Korean folk song by the same name that's considered an incredibly important part of Korea's history. The opening song on the album 'Body to Body' features a choral version of Arirang on the bridge and outro.
The bell featured in No. 29, the Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok, is also steeped in Korean history. The sound is said to travel up to 25 miles, and takes over a minute to fade out completely. RM stated in the interview mentioned above that No. 29 runs for the length of time it takes for the sound to completely fade away.
Image from Wikipedia.
These things are a all very cool, and with my limited knowledge of Korean history are things I think are nice inclusions. The general feedback from a lot of people though are that it doesn't really go far enough, or live up to the level of influence the marketing made it seem like ARIRANG would feature. This is something I can agree with, based on how hard they were pushing it I did expect the album to go a lot harder on how "Korean" it was, for lack of a better phrase.
Conclusion
I don't think I've really made it a secret that I love ARIRANG, despite whatever flaws I've listed above. I've relistened to it many, many times and I enjoy it more every time. It's definitelty my favourite thing they've done since at least Map of the Soul: 7.
As you'll see below I inititally ranked it at #1, then bumped it to #2 but it's possible it will end up back at #1 purely based on my own attachment to it. I do think the current #1 album is a better album in general but I don't have the same kind of nostalgic attachment to it that I do ARIRANG so it may yet end up my #1 album of the year.
Initial Ranking: #1
Current Ranking: #2
Best Song: 2.0
