My wife is BTS Army.
I think I said that correctly. I’m not into BTS. I don’t speak Korean, and while that isn’t by any means a no-go, given that I enjoy a lot of music in languages I don’t speak, I already have a rather tenuous relationship with pop music, and am picky about it (which is not the same as saying I have good taste).
Even so, she asked me, given that I had with some frequency listened to the full discographies of artists recommended to me, why I had not listened to the work of a group that had been so important to her. I realized she had a point, but cautioned that if I was to discuss the songs, I would provide my full, uncensored opinion – neither catastrophizing nor sugarcoating my feelings, as I did for anyone who wanted to discuss music with me. She said this was fine. So without further ado, the first full-length BTS album – DARK & WILD:
I am told that this is not by any means their best work, and that the group themselves periodically joke that they don’t know how they have any fans at all based on this starting point, which did not feel like a promising start. Nonetheless, I rolled up my sleeves and sat down for a listen.
The album first track, Intro: What Am I To You starts with a brief, unremarkable sketch followed by symphonic cadence that felt appropriate for the intro of an anime series. The rap following felt emotionally dissonant, especially when reading the lyrics – at least one of the rappers sounds like he’s trying to project a tough, angry image while saying tender things. The rhythm is strong, but I’m not in love with their delivery.
The second track, Danger, has largely unremarkable verses, but the chorus is fire. I would like the song enough to put it in my heavy rotation if I felt the verses were strong enough to support the chorus. I feel I would enjoy this more if there was more singing rather than rapping. I feel they’re not as good at rapping as they are at singing, and the margin isn’t narrow.
Hormone War. Before reading the lyrics, I felt like this was somehow cringe-y. After reading an English translation of the lyrics, I’m pretty sure my face has turned inside out from cringing so hard. The beat is catchy. The harmonizing seems to confirm my suspicion that they are better (as a group, I cannot pick out members at this point) at singing than rapping.
Hip Hop Lover was a title I was most concerned would not be enjoyable. The song itself turned out to be explicit references to a number of the most famous hip-hop acts. As far as I can tell, they were all US based acts, so I presume that it is currently chic to reference American entertainment, or else it is an attempt to build rapport with an American audience, in which case I feel it is culturally tone-deaf. Bragging about listening to well known acts does not establish cred – I feel they would be better served referencing specific songs, preferably through brief homages. Once again, I’m not in love with their vocals, but prefer their singing to rapping (and recognize that their rap is rhythmically interesting).
Let Me Know seems like a generic love ballad. The lyrics look unremarkable, but I can only base that on the translation. There may be some clever wordplay or subtext missing, but the only thing I found on Genius.com is a note on the cliche-sounding lines, “The promises we made disappeared with the time we spent together / The dominos have fallen with our breakup / Like Juliet and Romeo” that says “💔💔💔” The brief guitar riff before the penultimate chorus is neat, but the high note in the final chorus is not. Musically, I find it unobjectionable.
Rain is musically mellow in a way I find pleasing. The piano is fairly nice. The rap is somehow significantly less objectionable (at least for the first two-thirds of the song) than the rap on other parts of the album so far. Not something I would put on a playlist in a very active rotation, but pretty good.
I regret to say I hated Cyber PT.3: KILLER. Just cannot stand it. The rap is not good. The English lyrics are cringy. The translated lyrics sound incredibly try hard. The background music is unremarkable. I would prefer not to hear this song again. Reading the lyrics, however, I was amused by the specific diss lines that have been appended on Genius to have a positive spin. “You have nothing I would be jealous of” == “learn to love yourself,” apparently. I don’t feel like meanness is taboo in KPop culture, but is Army against acknowledging that their idols said a potentially mean thing?
Interlude What Are You Doing sure sounds like an interlude. Perhaps too much so. I feel like I could hear this on an elevator or while on hold. Phone sound at the end sells it. Still, I don’t want to listen to hold music. Artistically, it’s interesting, though.
Can You Turn Off Your Phone feels like very unremarkable formulaic pop to me, and the second time I listened to the album, I didn’t feel I remembered it, despite simply looping the album in the same media player, which rules out omitting the track on first listen.
Blanket Kick returns us to rap with an underlying jazzy soft rock vibe. I feel like I would be more impressed if they were sampling something else. As it is, this kind of sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack of a K-Drama, of which I’m not especially fond on the balance (Goblin – essentially being a K-Drama rendition of Twilight – was all right and certainly had remarkably good moments; the product placement was painfully garish).
24-7=Heaven feels cringe. In this case, I feel qualified to make the assessment. The rap is still not my favorite, but at least doesn’t feel emotionally dissonant on this track. All I could think are those enthusiastic monster truck rally announcers bellowing, “Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!” This song had the most lyrics I misheard as nonsensical English phrases, which is largely meaningless, but I wonder if there is something about the particular way they sing on this song that yielded those results.
Look Here feels cringe and maybe a little incel-y in the same way that the subtitle (tagline?) of the album is. It feels like it is trying, in some sense, to be sensual but falls short of that goal by my reckoning. It is very try-hard and too weird to pull it off. The uniqueness would be good if I felt it was not trying to be as serious.
Grade. Oof. There are about three moments in the rap where they do something cool and I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I can get this.” Then once again trying to come across as hard. The rhythm is weaker than their other raps, which is ironic given that they seem to be trying harder to sell it on this song.
Outro Does That Make Sense feels like it was invented explicitly to be an encore song. It does have the satisfying quality, therefore, of being a solid end of album song. I hate the deep distorted voice, though. It sounds like they’re singing into one of those toy microphones we had as children. The English rhyme girl/world is a cliche like fire/desire and that bothers me. Generally a song I’m not especially displeased to wrap up on.
I did not feel the production quality was especially strong. I feel some of the mixing could have been improved. I don’t feel this act was expected to be such an outrageous success, so perhaps the budget was too limited to do their vision justice. Perhaps inexperience contributed to less-than-optimal choices in production. I suspect subsequent albums will be more enjoyable.
Next album will be WAKE UP.
Trans rights are human rights. Defund the police. Fund the schools.