Ramblings

RM of BTS

4.8 stars out of 5

I want to start this review out by clarifying that I am not an army. However, I have enjoyed a few of the members’ solo releases. J-Hopes Arson was very fun. V’s stuff is nice! RM.. this new album is pretty weird and I like it. Creative direction goes hard, I understand how people get into them.

What is clear about Right People Wrong Place is that this man listens to A LOT of music. I hear the Elliot Smith, the SchoolBoy Q, the Frank and Tyler, Outkast and SO. Much. Tom Misch. This man got on that Tom Misch train and mixed it together with our boy Doom, Madlib, and maybe some Franky Gibbs. Tash Sultana? Is that you? Omg… is that… Nine Inch Nails?  60s American rock and roll and 80s Japanese experimental jazz shine through.  Him and his team listened to so much music, and then added the RICH production techniques of K-Pop in there to make a truly cool album. Good for them. 

The first song shares it’s name with the album. It acts as a bridge from whatever reality you are living in into his world. I have listened to it now like 8 times in a row to review it. It has super lux production, almost similar to Hall of Fame by Skz. There's a fun angry sample in the back. He doesn’t say much but it allows you to see the sunrise of vision he is creating. Okay. I have stockholm-syndromed myself with this song.

Nuts comes next, with that baseline that takes me into a Vulfpeck song, with Tyler vocals. Looping sounds are obviously a theme in this album, as it is trying to hypnotize you into taking this album seriously. The song switches between Korean and English, using a sexy metaphore to convince you to join his team, even with the sinister sounds creeping around the listeners neck. I don’t know the feature, but the dark voice really allows the metaphor punch. It is weird to hear someone use the 2000s alt rap rhythm with such clean production. 

Lil Simz on Domodachi does a lot of leg work of certifying RM as cool, same with Moses Sumney on Around the World in A Day. I do wish they added some texture to his vocals. It sounds so clean in comparison to the absolute dirty production. The rhythms are wild.

I think overall this album tells a cohesive story that allows for RM’s vision to really latch on to the listener. This album breaks out of Kpop into genuinely good music, filled with references, homages, and good story telling. We do not get music as considered as this in KPOP. I am going to give this album 4.8 star rating. The missed bits come from too clean vocals and how I want to see more credit given to the producers of the album. Get an older microphone, RM.