7.5/10
Listen, the reason why i'm writing this review so late is because i didn't want to do what i did last time with WINGS. I gave WINGS an average score when that album is probably the greatest work in (idol) K-POP, which i realized afterwords, and trust me, i disliked this album MUCH more than i do now, so please keep this in mind as i continue to rant about all the disappointments this album gave me, as a huge FAN of the group (after the masterpiece that was wings (excluding am i wrong i still dont know her)).
Honestly, musically this album is not bad at all. Actually, i enjoy most of the songs and jam to them on a regular basis. Love yourself is already my 4th most listened to album of the year on lastfm, right after three other BTS albums. The reason why this album is such a MASSIVE downgrade from WINGS has nothing to do with the music itself (although DNA is the worst song i've heard this year), it's the concept that falls short.
I should cut them some slack since this isn't a full album, but the main problem i have is that this album is named "love yourself" but lyrically not a single song is actually about loving yourself. Sure, you can try to reach and link each songs to "loving yourself" if you tried, but that's the problem. RM was asked in an interview how this album is about Loving Yourself, his reply? He mumbled some incoherent things cause not even he knows. Like you know when you're writing up the script for your presentation the night before but realize that nothing connects to the rubrics framework so you just gotta make shit up? Yeah, thats what his reply was, and it really woke me up and made me realize these boys' creative freedom is really the same of any other idol group, it exists, but to a very small extent. Well... unless you're Jinyoung (b1a4) or Younghwa (cn blue).
Before my nonexistent army readers stone me, let me just give my track by track thoughts:
Intro; Serendipity: A lovely song. I'm so happy that this is a full length song right off the bat. Jimins vocals were made for this song, and this song was made to show what a great vocalist Jimin is. BTS' distinctiveness would drop a huge amount if this boys vocals didn't exist. They're incredibly underrated, and only over dramatic stan twitter fans hype them up, but honestly i believe distinctive vocals like his are a lot more valuable than vocals that can just belt out high notes.
DNA; Do i need to talk about this song? I just listened to it and muted my laptop mid way, it literally hurts my ears. The arrangement of this is so stupid. The song builds up to nothing. Not only that, but its over layered. Listen, i am pro layering, i love it when songs are layered, but this song is layered in the worst way. Each new layer just does nothing to the song, except make it noisier. There's nothing enjoyable about these sounds, nothing enjoyable about this vocal melody, nothing enjoyable about this beat drop... it's just a bunch of shit glued together, that's what it sounds like. It's over produced to hell and back and it just sounds like they tried too hard, which i get. They wanted something complex, cause its BTS and going the simple route (arrangement wise) is too risky. But i still don't get it, they were spot on with I NEED U, Blood sweat & tears, Save me etc. Even FIRE is less ear bleeding than this, and at least FIRE is a BOP. This? this is garbage. The pro? it's quality garbage.
Best of Me; Ah yes, the chain cancers... i mean chain smokers song. You know, although i dragged them to hell and back for working with these racists, i still hoped and really thought that the song BTS would get would be good, and not basic like the rest of these mayonnaise cardboard producers always put out. But nope, it was exactly as we all knew it would go. The song starts with some white inspired chanting, there's a verse and then an average beat drop. Actually, the beat drop is the best part about the song, but its still... just nice.
보조개 (dimples): OK FINALLY, i can say some positive things. Listen, this song saved k-pop. Can you believe such a compliment exists in this review? But really, this song is SO good. I am so thankful for this song, it literally made me forgive this whole album. The chorus floors me. The production and arrangement is so simple and clean. It's just a simple beat, with a stellar vocal melody throughought. It's totally the LOST of this album.
Pied Piper: A cute song. Hypocritical as hell though, but i won't blame them too much. It's trendy and its clean production emphasizes that. It's just very catchy, but you only get into it after a few listens.
MIC Drop: How many songs are BTS going to release about the same thing. They have so many songs about their haters it's almost as if they're talking to themselves at this point. But i get it, when someone looks down on me in real life i would also probably post a 60 tweet rant on twitter and wanna show them how great i'm doing more than once, so you know what i forgive them. I hated this song at first, sounded very obnoxious (you know like 1/4th of bts' discography), but the song is a total BOP, nothing close to baepsae, but its good.
고민보다 Go: I'm honestly not even going to waste my time talking about this song much. It sounds like they copy & pasted a bunch of vine songs together and even accompanied it with a dance from a popular meme.
Outro : Her: Yoongi did a nice job, i never listen to this song though. I'm so tired so i'll just leave it at that.
바다: A hidden track, and you know why it's a hidden track? Because it's too deep and meaningful for this album that apparently had something to do with loving yourself. This is the only song that supplied any comfort to listeners, and you know why this bothers me so much? Cause that's what makes BTS so distinctive, songs like this, this concept, that they literally just threw away for this whole release.
Let me end off by saying i hold BTS to a different standard than other idol groups, and that's solely because of the HYYH and WINGS series. If you simply just watch the teasers for each of those series, heck even for this love yourself series, you'd understand why this group is so incredible. I just felt like the songs on this album tainted all of that, almost making me feel that maybe the things i loved weren't all that meaningful after all. Maybe this really is just another k-pop group just doing a concept. Honestly, i feel like BTS will continue doing this kind of music from now on, and that makes me incredibly sad. WINGS gave me so much strength, this... gave me nothing.
Intro : Serendipity 8/10
DNA 6/10
Best Of Me 7.5/10
보조개 10/10
Pied Piper 8.5/10
MIC Drop 8.5/10
고민보다 Go 5/10
Outro : Her 7/10
바다: 9.5/10
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