Korean boy band goes places

Breaking barriers with their music by taking K-Pop to the American soil is just one of BTS’s many achievements. The seven-member group from South Korea debuted in 2013 under a small company. Now, five years later, they are considered one of the biggest boy bands, performing and winning awards at the Billboard Music Awards.

The band’s latest album ‘Love Yourself: Tear,’ was released on May 18. It is one of their best albums so far, featuring songs of nearly every genre. The band’s songs deal with social issues from depression to women empowerment and it is also known for its inspirational lyrics.

‘Love Yourself: Tear’ is a follow up of BTS’s previous album ‘Love Yourself: Her.’ Clearly, the music has evolved along with members of the band. Every track in this album shows the involvement of one member or more in the writing and production process, with the leader and rapper RM credited in all the 11 tracks.

The album starts with an R&B and jazz song - ‘Intro: Singularity’ featuring V’s husky vocals with a touch of pain that sets the tone for the album. There is an underlying sense of desolation as V draws the listeners in with his deep voice that haunts one, long after the song is over.

Next up is the title track ‘Fake Love’ which is a far cry from their earlier album and is angst-ridden with dark undertones. There is this one line in the chorus that translates to “I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true,” which touched a chord in one. ‘The Truth Untold,’ features Steve Aoki and is an emotional song stripped to the bone, and sung by four vocalists of the band - Jin, Jimin, V and Jungkook. Each one’s voice is raw as they sing about struggling to accept oneself as one is.

It is followed by a slew of tracks that hop genres. From the jazzy ‘134340’ which uses Pluto’s denouncement as a planet to sing about the feeling of fading into nothingness and being forgotten, to EDM-based ‘Magic Shop’ where the band promises to return all the love and support from the fans. Another EDM song in the album is ‘So What.’ We also have latin vibes in ‘Airplane pt.2’ reminiscent of Camila Cabello’s ‘Havana,’ as both songs share the same song writer - Ali Tamposi. The lyrics of this song tell us about the life of celebrities, both the good and the bad. Strong R&B can be heard in the track ‘Paradise’ while ‘Love Maze’ is a laidback pop number.

‘Anpanman,’ based on the Japanese comic character, has music that reminds one of Bollywood.