This past Monday Bangtan released their second full length album titled 'WINGS.' The album has been highly anticipated ever since their company, bighit entertainment, began posting short film esque teasers for each member in early September. The Album includes 7 solos for each member, 6 group songs, as well as an intro and an outro, making it 15 tracks long. It's really rare for K-POP albums to be this long, especially considering the fact that these are all brand new songs. This only made the anticipation amongst fans even higher for this album.
Now that i've explained the general details of this album, let's get to the fun part. Let me first say, i'm not a die hard fan, nor an anti of this group. If i had to label myself as something i'd say I have a casual interest in the music this group puts out. This has really only been the case since the group released 'I NEED U,' which is probably one of the best Korean boy group tracks i've heard in years. Was i anticipating this album? Yes i was. I mean the songs in the teasers sounded promising, especially the one in J-hope's teaser, so I was really counting down the days until this album finally got released.
I honestly feel like this group get's more hate than they deserve due to their overly defensive and sometimes even batshit crazy fanbase. But really, which successful boy group doesn't have that? Although their fandom is definitely crazy enough for one to want to ignore the whole group, it's not enough for people to make hating them their full time occupation. The group's discography is actually pretty decent for a K-POP group. I mean, for there past releases i have kept 2 or more tracks from them, and to me that's a lot since i very easily delete tracks and am VERY picky.
With all that being said, do i think this was a good album? It really depends. For K-POP standards this is a good album, but if i were to simply judge this album based on the amount i enjoyed and wanted to actually re-listen to the tracks then i would say it's an OK album. Keep in mind that i'm saying this as someone who really wanted to like this album. Let's move on to a track-by-track breakdown.
Track 1: Intro: Boy Meets Evil: This is actually a very impressive intro. I almost always delete k-pop intros, no, i ALWAYS delete them. This one is actually enjoyable, and i see it more as a short song than an intro. Kudo's to J-hope, he really delivered this track well. 8.5/10.
Track 2: 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears): This is a good song, is it as good as 'I NEED U'? Not even slightly, but this is one of the tracks i've replayed quite a lot on this album. I think it does its job as a title track. 8.5/10.
Tracks 3-5: Begin, Lie, Stigma: The style and concept of these songs is quite similar to each other. the production on all of them is very clean and neat, nothing over done. With that being said, i only enjoyed Begin out of these three songs. The vocal melodies on Lie and Stigma are just not enjoyable. For Lie, it's really that "caught in a lie~" part that makes me not wanna listen to it, other than that part it would be a good song though. For stigma, it's the fact that its mostly sung in falsetto... it's just too much. 8/10, 6/10, 5/10 respectively.
Tracks 6-7: First Love, Reflection: These songs are each solos from their rappers. To be honest, as a whole these tracks are a good work, but if i am judging it on skip value, well... i always skip these tracks so... They're very deep tracks, and the lyrics are very nice. First love also includes the piano from Suga's amazing "So far away" from his mixtape, and his rapping is also really great on this song which made me not delete this it. Reflection is a little less memorable than First Love, but once again the lyrics are good, relatable, and Rap Monster's delivery is very genuine. 7.5/10, 7/10 respectively.
Track 8: MAMA: Finally! A song i really like! This is really the highlight of the album. J-hope has really made this his era. Everything from how the song starts (i really love how the beat fades in), to J-hopes rapping (the moment he says "Time Travel!" i am ready to jam to this song), it's just a song you can't skip. Basically, this was the most enjoyable track for me. It's fun, the lyrics are cute, and that beat still has me SHOOK! 10/10!
Track 8: Awake: This is another song i enjoyed. It's a sweet ballad, very similar to butterfly on their previous Mini album. There are two minor problems: 1, Jin's vocals and 2, it's kind of a watered down version of butterfly. I mean his vocals don't bother me that much, but i feel like this song could have been better if it was a group song. I also feel there was just a slight lack of creativity in this song. 7.5/10
Tracks 10-14: The last couple of songs are all group songs, except for Cypher 4 which is just the rapper line. To be honest with you i'll probably only be keeping 'Lost' and '둘! 셋! (그래도 좋은 날이 더 많기를).' Both of those tracks are enjoyable. Although i will probably never want to listen to them on their own so i'll give them a 7.5/10. Cypher 4 is... only enjoyable when Suga starts rapping at the end so i'll just give this a 6/10 and move on. 'Am I Wrong' and '21세기 소녀' are far too noisy and overproduced to be enjoyable so i give them a 5/10. I mean each track has some good moments but those are quickly forgotten by the end where your ear is close to bleeding. Bangtan has a big issue with this in my opinion, too many of their songs are just over produced to the point that it is overwhelming and just a huge turn off. It really just reminds me that "ah, this is K-POP after all."
Overall, there's about three songs i really like on this album, four i find nice, and the rest is just either forgettable or just downright head aching mess. I am looking forward to this group growing, and their sound maturing a more. Whether i like this album or not, i know this group is raking up cash, this is just my opinion on the music and the music alone.
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