Honestly, that was about what I expected

After reuniting as a group following their mandatory military service, BTS have finally come back with their new album, ARIRANG! I'm about a couple years removed from being a more passionate army, years I've spent sitting with and finally accepting the disappointment I'd been feeling witnessing their musical trajectory post-2020, so I didn't really go into this with high hopes. Which was honestly setting my expectations exactly where they should have been, because this was about as mid as I thought it'd be. Sorry.

It's not an uninteresting album, if you're more tuned into the group and are more familiar with their style and colour over the years: this is the most hip-hop they've been in a while. I haven't been following the rollout as closely as I would have been in my earlier fan days, but I did see them mention that the album was meant to be a culmination of their journey as a group throughout the years, and honestly? Yeah, I hear it! The first half of the album is a lot more rap-heavy, reminiscent of their older days, but with a sound more adapted to the current hip-hop landscape and trends, while the second half is more melodic and pop. 

The problem is... well... where are the bangers? Not that there aren't any songs on the album I don't see eventually growing on me, there were one or two reasonably catchy tracks, but this was an incredibly underwhelming comeback for what was once one of the biggest acts in the world at some point in time. For how much fanfare there seems to be for their return, complete with what is apparently a whole mini concert city dedicated to their comeback in Seoul, the music itself feels safe, unexceptional. I was expecting at least a bit of a bang, but I could honestly put this whole thing on the shelf and not think about it in the next few years.

A real shame. I honestly think they've run out of things to say, and fame's burnt them out. I've made my peace with that a while ago, and this release pretty much sealed it. I hope that at the very least they'll manage a couple few memorable performances out of their world tour, but I'm confident in saying that the BTS moment is pretty much over.

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Honestly I've been pretty tuned out of k-pop for a while now. At a certain point, everything starts to sound repetitive and the performances simply don't dazzle as they used to, and the fan culture as well as genuinely abusive industry standards just start to alienate you more and more. It's really not a fandom I miss participating in much.

That said, there is always the occasional gem that gets released, like this song by Ten from WayV last year:

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Goes crazy. He was always the standout member of the group for me, and I was really disappointed with the solo he released back in 2021 so it was amazing to find out that this was the new direction he decided to take!

I listened to Haechan's first solo last year as well, because he has my favourite voice out of everyone in NCT, but honestly wasn't too impressed. The title track was fine, but I was hoping for something that stuck more.

Anyways. Those are my kpop updates for the morning.