Their constant conflict between just wanting to be normal guys who happen to sing for a living is such a classic thing you hear from celebrities. No one wants the pressure of always living up to everyone’s expectations, the constant public scrutiny, the loss of personal life freedom, the uncertainty of what happens if you don’t keep topping your last achievement.

I don’t know if it was the combination of jumping into the album making process almost straight out of military (which I’d imagine made them feel even closer to “just being some guys” and further away from their artist/idol identities), and the hyper awareness of all the different kinds of audiences ready to pick this album apart, but it feels like the pressure did stifle their creativity a bit. All the different voices around them, outside and within the team they work with, constantly made them doubt themselves.

I guess Swim really is the perfect title track for what they felt during these past 10 months. What was it Namjoon said? Not dying, but almost? Just trying to keep your head above water.

I hope they have let some of that go now, even though many of their fears have come true in how the album has been received. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, and some criticism is valid. But many, many fans love it. And they are reaching some new people as well.

At the end of the day, they’d get a lot of mixed reactions no matter what they did. And they were clearly prepared for that.

What frustrates me is mostly the feeling that they stayed too ambivalent between embracing the concept vs feeling like they’re not worthy of it. And I think that could be why the album feels emptier than it could have been. I think they do better, especially as a full group, when they have something clear to build around and embrace that fully and the arirang vagueness makes that harder, even if that’s part of the point.

The constant “international audiences would receive it like this, but Koreans would say this and this” seemed to really weigh on them. I understand that it’s impossible to not think like that, and that they’re stuck in a tough position where they’ve had such immense successes, but now almost have to reach yet another peak to not ruin their own legacy.

At the same time, I can’t help but wish they didn’t give in to outside pressures too much, particularly on the English and more “relatable” lyrics. It would be one thing if it was them who really wanted to try more rapping in English, but it wasn’t. They didn’t stand their ground enough on that in my opinion. The lyrics are the main thing that makes it feel disconnected, because as joon said, even he is not a native. It’s not about “wanting them to stay in the kpop box” like some would say, just that there is a barrier between them and lyrics in a language they didn’t grow up around or use day to day. For the members who aren’t even fluent, it feels like the wrong priority to have them practice pronunciation so much just to sing words that don’t mean as much to them as Korean ones would. And with hiphop in particular, it’s hard to not hold them to a higher standard than other kpop groups.

And then ON and Black Swan being brought up as “not relatable”….as if that’s not one of their absolute artistic peaks, feels like dumbing them and the audience they’re trying to reach down. Do they really care to be embraced by people who would be put off by a song in Korean, or who wouldn’t take the time to translate lyrics, anyway? Or is it more the company who cares…

It sort of feels like they’re surrendering to the idea that artistic depth is dead in pop. And that makes me a little bit sad, especially after Jimin and rapline’s solo work.

And I’m saying all this while I do think the album is a solid comeback. And I do think it blends their solo eras and earlier years as BTS, plus some new experimentation, together well. I do love listening to many of the songs, and I genuinely think it’s better production wise than a lot of their earlier work.