BTS Nails Its Comeback With ‘Arirang’

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

Comebacks don’t get bigger than this one. BTS have finally returned with Arirang, their first new album in more than five years. Fans around the world have been counting the days until this moment, ever since BTS put the group on pause while all seven members fulfilled their mandatory military service in South Korea. But the kings are together again: RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. Spread the word around: The boys are back in town.

Arirang shows off their collective bravado, ready to take over where they left off as world-beating pop studs. The last time BTS dropped an album, it was Be, in November 2020, but this is a far more upbeat statement: 14 tracks with production from Diplo, Flume, Ryan Tedder, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Mike WiLL Made-It, and JPEGMAFIA. They set the tone in the opening anthem “Body to Body,” interpolating a beloved Korean folk song while chanting, “I need the whole stadium to jump!” 

All the BTS guys kept busy with music during their time away, exploring their individual personalities and pursuing their drastically different artistic ideas. As a result, they made some of their most deeply personal — and fascinating — work. Jimin delved into slinky pop on Muse, while RM went back to his underground roots and explored his soul side, duetting with Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak on Indigo, as well as Moses Sumney on Right Place, Wrong Person. 

Suga dropped D-Day, from his alter ego Agust D, with the introspective “Haegeum.” Jung Kook threw down with Latto and Jack Harlow on Golden, while J-Hope got raw with Jack in the Box and his street-dance docuseries Hope on the Street. V went for endearing, jazzy supper-club ballads on Layover. As for Jin — last but never least — he entered his black-nail-polish glam-rock era with the “Worldwide Handsome” flash of Echo. These were all passion projects, unhindered by any attempt at crowd-pleasing; all were the work of confident men with their own paths to follow.

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But on Arirang, they’re out to demonstrate that they’re all pushing in the same direction now, stressing their group identity and — especially — their South Korean roots. They named the album after a legendary Korean folk song, first recorded by a group of Korean ex-pat students in the U.S. in the 1890s. It was their homeland’s most internationally famous song before the K-pop explosion — a song of mourning and resistance, deeply entwined with their national history through the 20th century. They weave it into the final 30 seconds of “Body to Body,” along with traditional Korean percussion — a powerful collision of the ancient and the modern within the BTS sound.

It’s a significant move, since one of the most crucial elements of their global ascension was their stubborn refusal to water down their Korean identity. Anybody who knew the music business could have warned them that the only way to crack the U.S. was to sing crossover pop tunes in English — but instead, they insisted on conquering America on their own terms. BTS didn’t even bother dabbling in English until they’d already established themselves in the States as stadium-packing megastars, doing it the hard way.

So it means something that on Arirang, they’re determined to remind their worldwide ARMY of fans where they come from. There’s a poignant moment halfway through the album — an “interlude” that’s simply the toll of the sacred bell of King Seongdeok, also known as the Emille Bell. It’s one of the most revered Korean national treasures — a gigantic, nearly 19-ton bronze bell cast over 1,200 years ago. (It’s said the unique tone can carry for 25 miles.) Here it’s just one ring of the bell, reverberating for almost two minutes, but it’s a powerful statement.

RM has a hand in producing every track here, except the interlude, while the rest of the group have songwriting and production credits throughout. The first half of the album is one uptempo stomp after another, loaded with hip-hop braggadocio, as they serve notice that they’re coming back hard. “FYA” sets the tone, with chants like “Club go psycho/Might take you viral/I go full Thriller tonight,” or “Club go crazy/Like Britney, baby/Hit me with it one more time!” They hang tough in “Aliens” (playfully detailing how they feel as Koreans in the West), “Hooligan” (with Rosalía/Charli XCX producer El Guincho), or “2.0,” a theme song for their new chapter. “They Don’t Know ’Bout Us” has the boast “You said we changed? We feel the same,” while “Normal” has them chanting, “Kerosene, dopamine, what I gotta do? We call this shit normal!” 

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But the second half stretches out in more interesting creative directions, compared to the straightforward bravado of the first half. “Swim” is a synth-pop love song about diving into messy emotions, getting in over their heads with something they can’t understand. But naturally, hearing these voices sing “Swim” makes it double as a song about their fears and anxieties, as they take the plunge back into their BTS lifestyle. “One More Night” is the most musically adventurous banger on Arirang, a Diplo jam with a droning psychedelic organ over an early-Nineties house-music throb — it sounds like Stereolab or Neu! partying it up in the club with Robin S. “Please” goes for Nineties R&B, with jazzy chords.

“Merry Go Round” is the most melancholy moment, a gauzy electro-pop lament with Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, about repeating emotional patterns you can’t seem to break. “My life is like a broken roller coaster,” they sing, mourning a broken relationship, yet also articulating how chaotic it feels for them to leap back into BTS for more of the highs and lows of their relentless global pop-star pace.

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