Review: BTS’s Be is a sublime comfort pop for the locked soul

What do you do after you’ve made world history by becoming the first Korean band, and only the third band in history, to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

If you are BTS, you apparently still work. On Friday, the beloved K-pop group released Be, her first album since February Soul Map: 7 fell at the beginning of the pandemic, and since their summer bop, “Dynamite” became their first single on the charts in the United States.

“Dynamite”, which is not BTS’s first single entirely in English, seemed to stem from the recognition that the band was somehow too complex to be heard on American radio. In many ways, it was a huge departure from his typical approach to his craft.

So when BTS announced a new album, the question arose as to what kind of album. Be It would be, uh, if he would venture even further from his previous musical and collaborative styles, or if it would represent a return to his typical mix of rock and hip-hop with the occasional lighter pop.

Be it is a short album, with only seven new tracks along with “Dynamite”. But almost all of them are sublime. Taken together, they form a perfect litany of bops meant to commemorate and celebrate the overcoming of the Covid-19 pandemic. Musically Be it’s pure pop, all the way through: a retro mix of pop sounds ranging from sparkling to funky, melancholic to mellow, filtered through a lens of determined positivity.

The band’s toughest sound, most anthem, which put them on the map and landed their fantastic single “On” at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February, is absent here. And that’s okay, because the album’s message seems to be about staying light, optimistic, and holding on to hope whenever possible. As many parts of the US are reentering states of crisis, Be it’s like a deliberate roadmap for how we can all get through the next few months – songs, good humor, and confidence in the bonds that hold us together.

BigHit / Weibo

Be it is both a proclamation and a promise. It’s okay to rest, it says: just exist, survive, be. In that sense, the album’s aural shift to full-on pop feels like a completely necessary response to a very difficult year, and indeed, it is destined to be.

Be It opens with the band’s newest single, “Life Goes On,” which came out at midnight on Friday along with the album. Its theme, the pandemic, is immediately obvious in the accompanying music video, which was directed by band member Jeon Jungkook and begins with a lone V (Kim Taehyung) driving down a nearly empty road. It’s interspersed with shots of Jungkook looking longingly out the window, as they both recall how “one day the world stopped.”

One by one, the other members of the band join in, singing with good humor about how, although they miss the company and activity, although they are haunted by melancholy, life will one day return to normal. It’s a sweet, singable song that finds positivity in simplicity, about what you’d expect from a collaboration with songwriter Antonina Armato, who, incidentally, also wrote the best song ever written: “Bet On It” by High School Musical 2.

“Fly to My Room” is next, a lighthearted song with a cute Ariana Grande vibe that is all about turning your room into a fantasy world tour because you’re stuck inside and can’t leave. It is adorable and I love it. There’s a slight gospel vibe to both songs (they wouldn’t feel out of place in, say, a Charlie Puth collaboration) that sets the stage for all that is to come. This is pop music as meditation, as comfort, as expression of faith.

The band’s thematic material will be familiar to fans. Here, as always, BTS frankly discusses things like mental health and the pressure that comes with fame. But Be stays airy, even when the lyrics are moody. Each one of BeThe eight tracks, which include the closing of the album “Dynamite” and a parody in which they mock themselves for being the first in the charts, are a personal reminder that we are all in this together. Even the lush ballad on the album “Blue & Gray” maintains this sense of warm energy, although it is explicitly about dealing with the depression and loneliness induced by the pandemic. After all, even though the boys say, “I’m singing alone,” they still all sing together.

There is a confessional quality to this number, not only because the group members co-wrote it, the band co-wrote the entire album, but because BTS’s beautiful voices are often the melodic equivalent of an ASMR session. Taekook’s choppy opening verse, followed by Suga and J-Hope’s laid-back rhymes, feels like someone is whispering to you through your pillow. (Hiss Noise, who produced Taehyung’s two beautiful solo ballads, “Winter Bear” and “Sweet Night,” also co-wrote “Blue & Gray,” and the same relaxing vibe is immediately recognizable.) Then there’s Jimin’s whiny and cheerful tenor, which always makes him the cutest and most secretive member of your slumber party. BTS are professionals at creating this kind of intimacy between artist and listener, and here, applying that skill to creating what I hereby christen “comfort pop” feels like a public service.

That brings me to “Telepathy” and “Stay”, both of which are about the band that misses its fans by turning their loneliness into lively optimism. The quirky, self-tuned “Telepathy,” the only song that comes close to being a flop for me, still feels like a musical thumbs-up and change of pace, reminiscent of a quirkier K-pop band like Block B on instead of BTS. “Stay”, on the other hand, is exactly my improv – a multi-layered song that begins by channeling the retro ’90s vibe of BTS’s early 2020 song “Moon”, my favorite song of the year, before opening up. in a breeze. EDM rhythm.

When discussing the specific sound of “Moon” recently with Ignition PopCharlie Harding, I realized that both he and “Stay” are channeling a specific flavor of early 90’s pop that gives me an instant boost of serotonin. You’re lucky that I even stopped playing “Stay” to listen to the rest of this album.

In both “Tapestry” and “Stay”, BTS does what they usually do when the band addresses their fandom directly as a specific “you”. I generally find this trait to be off-putting rather than sweet, even though it’s the kind of customization the Army loves. And although I love “Stay”, I am definitely not sure if we need two different songs on this subject on an album that is already shorter than usual.

But it’s also undeniable that in this period of quarantine, social distancing, and separation, you can never have too many sonic hugs. BeThe songs are all explicit distractions, meant to acknowledge our collective humanitarian distress and then redirect it toward something happier. Even the most explicitly bleak song title, “Dis-Ease,” apparently about Covid-19 itself, is a pun on the idea of ​​discomfort rather than a direct confrontation with the disease. His anxiety is channeled through a fabulous cycle of musical motif twists, a hip-hop beat with funk trumpet, and guitars with an old-school boy band chorus. It’s all backed up by sarcastic raps full of humor and puns, and it’s about facing, and overcoming, a more pervasive internal doubt.

It’s as if the pandemic has reduced the emotional bandwidth of this album. Bitterness, frustration, and despair may be present, but they have no place in the sacred space of contemplation that BTS has carved out for themselves.

In this context, “Dynamite”, about which I had my reservations, feels like the perfect exclamation point when closed Be – a fun and vibrant future fantasy whose lyrical nonsense becomes part of the album’s decidedly escapist medium.

Be It doesn’t feel so much like a permanent change outside of the band’s varied framework as, perhaps, a timely thesis statement. Be it tells us, in a clear and delicious way, what BTS is and what it wants to be. And what the band wants to be is a source of positivity, hope and joy.

In this, BTS has clearly been successful. Shine on, original diamonds, and keep doing what you’re doing; It may not be considered an essential job, but it is definitely an essential art.

When will we shine through the city again with a little funk and soul? Soon, BTS promises, and who are we to argue?