I was not expect BTS to come back so soon with their world tour coming up, but man am I happy they did. BTS Love Yourself: Answer has been released! If you’ve read all of my posts about BTS, you will know that I’m quite fond of BTS, although they are not the bias group. That would be EXO.
BTS has made it into a number of posts, including ones where I talk about their sheet masks (part one and two), as well as my top albums from 2018 thus far. You may not know that based off of how often I post about EXO, SHINee, GOT7, etc., but I truly am a big fan. There are a lot of albums to share in my collection, and there will be a day where you will see a ton of posts about BTS in a short period of time. I’m still working on getting all of those up here.
I pre-ordered a copy (more like 4) off of Choice Music. You can get one album here for $18.99 plus shipping or the whole set here for $69.99 plus shipping. You can also get it off of Amazon for $21.95 with free shipping here if you have Amazon Prime. If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can get a 30 day free trial using this link here. I will not lie, the free 2 day shipping, plus all of the free music and videos are totally worth it. Prime really is worth it.
BTS Love yourself: Answer is a repackage of all previous versions, plus 7 new songs. Since I have already reviewed most of the tracks featured, I will only talk about the brand new tracks in this post. I also highly recommend that you read this post while listening to the song that I am talking about.
BTS Love Yourself: Answer Track by Track:
Euphoria
Okay, I must say, I love this song. I love how it opens with a guitar and piano chords. It sounds wonderful with Jungkook’s voice. Once you get to the beat drop, I actually really like how it has a bit of a ZEDD style to the beat drop. ZEDD is one of my favorite DJs/composers (don’t get me started on how much I love The Middle), so anyone who uses a similar synth sound I greatly enjoy. Jungkook, in my opinion, is the strongest vocalist out of the whole group at this point. Overall, really good song that made it into my playlist.
Trivia 起: Just Dance
So, this may not be in the order of the tracks on the album, but there is an order based on the 한자 (word for Chinese characters, pronounced Han-ja in Korean) used, as each corresponds to a step in the story composition process(this is called 기승전결 (Ki-seung-jeon-gyeul) in Korean, written as 起承轉結. 起 (기) means rise, stand up, opening, etc. It is used in words such as ground-breaking ceremony (기공식 (起工式), literally intro/opening, ground, party/ceremony). As this is said to be the introduction, I will talk about it as such.
Now, for the song itself, I am so happy, as will my one friend be, that this song is basically just Hobi (the other members of the group just do backing vocals). His voice and style are so unique. I am a huge fan of Hope World, as it is imbued with the positive, cheerful, slightly goofy energy that is J-Hope. The track has a bit of a groove too it as well. I’m very impressed with this track, as well as how Hobi has grown as an artist in general. This track makes me very proud of BTS, and the KPop industry as a whole.
Side note: I will point out that I am dancing at my desk while writing this, and people are totally looking at me #dontcare
The next 3 songs are Serendipity (Full Length), DNA, and 보조개 (dimple), which we all know and love from LYS: Her.
Trivia 承: Love
承 means in Korean to join, link, connect etc. In 기승전결, this is character corresponds to 승, the development stage of the story comoposition. Knowing this information, I will treat this track as the next phase of the story. All songs before this, I will consider to be a piece of the introduction, and all songs after this, until we get to the next 한자 (han-ja) character, I will treat this as a piece of the development as the story.
This track is an RM solo track. It serves as an excellent transition between the first and second section of the album, where the main character shifts from this person being their everything, to realizing they never cared about them in the first place (let’s be real, we’ve all been there). Unlike Fake Love, which addressed the same topic, this track takes this realization from a slightly more dream like perspective. Fake Love is a bit more intense. It’s like this track is the beginning of that realization, while Fake Love is when it full force hits you. I really enjoy this track as well, and I like how it goes straight from this track into Her, Singularity, Fake Love and then Truth Untold.
Trivia 轉: Seesaw
轉 translated into Korean means revolve, roll, move forward, come to fruitition. This is the climax piece of the story. It corresponds to the 전 in 기승전결. This is the turning point of the story, the moment when realizations occur. As such I will treat this track, and all following tracks as such.
This track is a Suga solo. I must say, I love how this album has added in more rapper solos. The last ones felt void without them. This track has a slightly more demure feel in comparison to the previous two Trivia tracks. In going with the story, this is the part of the story where after any relationship you feel empty, but it is finally done. What I like about this track is that is that it is a very realistic take on an emotion that is hard to portray, that feeling of emptiness. Suga does an excellent job of getting that emotion across, and I continue to be impressed with this entire series.
The next track is Tear, which was already released. I talked about it in my Tear Album Review.
Epiphany
Up to this point, I’m 100% floored by how well this album has been done. It’s 100% relatable, Epiphany included. While Tear is the part where you are going through the angry phase of getting over it, Epiphany, is the moment where you learn that you cannot anchor your emotions and feelings on someone else, and that you need to love yourself first. I’m not going to lie this track gets me emotional and gives me chills. I may go into why at a later moment in time, as it is a very personal story that I do really want to share. Let’s just say, this whole series touches my soul.
I’m Fine
I love how this track starts with Save Me, and then changes into such a positive happy song. This track is the part after the epiphany where you finally learn how to help yourself recover from what you went through, care about yourself, and all that happened finally feels like the past. I really enjoy this dance track I think it is excellent, and I enjoy every single second of it. It’s beautifully done. I could listen to this album over and over again.
IDOL
What I love about this track, is that it is the perfect “I don’t give a rats ass about you and your opinions” track. It is such a bomb track. It reminds me of something that would be at the end of a Bollywood film with a BTS Korean flair. The main thing I love about this track is the message it portrays about just being you, and telling haters to back off. Another track that has me jamming out at my desk. This is me:
Answer: Love Myself
When this track comes on, I like how the tempo drops. It is a perfect contrast to the last track, and reinforces the message of the album: people can come at you, and tear you down, but every time that someone does that, you come out stronger, more understanding and appreciative of yourself because we are all beautiful. Although I don’t think musically that this song is very creative, I think it has a very special place in the album, and adds quite a bit to the full story they have created.
K-Points: 999/5
So were my predictions that I made for the album in my review of Love Yourself: Tear correct? Was it a “the more you know feel”? Did it bring everything full circle? Yes, it did. Honestly, I loved every single track in this entire series. I think their message is so universally applicable and relate-able. I don’t know how there are going to top this.
So, where is the last part of 기승전결? The 結 (결) is in the title of the album *insert minds being blown*. So what does this tell us? Well 결 refers to collecting, establishing something, or the end. If the album title is the end, what meanings does this have? BTS having 結 to simply mean this is the final part of the story is too dang obvious. They’d create a slightly deeper meaning. So, how do I take it?
Honestly, I love analyzing this whole series. They created a whole universe over the past two years that deals with this story progression. I also feel like I’m not analyzing it yet. I had to control myself while writing this so that it wasn’t days long. Could I make an entire video of me, sitting listening to the album, ripping it to pieces? ABSOLUTELY! And I would enjoy every single second of it! A huge piece of my degree in college has to deal with literary analysis, and I would be more than happy to do that with this BTS album (although you would have to give me time to put my thoughts together).
Should you buy a copy of this album? Yes. Absolutely. It is a really good album that really plays with genre. It makes your brain have to think. Should you buy all four versions? Only one is necessary, but I never regret buying all 4 versions of BTS. I also have the money set aside to do so. Should you stream the album? Absolutely, and I’m already psyching myself up for their next release.
What is your favorite song on BTS’s new album? Let me know in the comments below, K-Nuggets!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
