BTS‘ highly anticipated fifth studio album, Arirang, is finally here. For the past five-and-a-half years, the group’s members have either worked on solo releases and/or served his mandatory military service in South Korea. But now they’re coming back in a big way.
In addition to the 14-track record, the group is releasing a video for the song “Swim.” On March 21, they’ve planned a free concert at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, which Netflix will livestream. On March 23, the group will perform in the U.S. for the first time in nearly four years for Spotify x BTS: SWIMSIDE, for 1,000 fans, in New York. A documentary, BTS: The Return, will arrive on Netflix offering a behind-the-look at everything on March 27. Then on April 9, they’ll embark on an 82-date world tour, slated to run through March of next year. Screenings of two concerts, officially titled BTS World Tour ‘Arirang’ Live Viewing, will take place on April 11 (showing the septet’s Goyang, South Korea gig) and April 18 (Tokyo).
To make the album, RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook all moved to Los Angeles where they lived together in a house for two months. It was the first time all seven of them had lived in the same place since 2019. Songwriters and producers for the album included Pdogg, Diplo, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, Flume, JPEGMAFIA, Mike WiLL Made-It, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, El Guincho, and Teezo Touchdown, among others. Ultimately, they created Arirang, named after a Korean folk song.
“During my time in the military, I couldn’t work on music even when I wanted to,” Jung Kook recently told Rolling Stone UK. “That built up a sense of longing. It made me want to do better and deliver something great.”
“In order to make music as a team in a healthy way, as each of us are making their own music, we each go through personal growth and growing pains that come with it,” J-Hope said on the Zach Sang Show last year. “We learn many things. And then when we reunite after doing our own things, these experiences will fill us with new strength and energy. And now that’s very soon. Everyone has grown while pursuing their solo projects. I think that will contribute to the music we create as BTS.”
Ultimately, they have said that the album they created was very personal. “Drawing on the emotional depth of ‘Arirang’— its sense of yearning, longing, and the ebb and flow of life, the band ultimately chose the title for its strong resonance with their current journey,” they said in a statement. “The new release explores universal emotions of longing and love and will resonate with the worldwide audience as a timeless legacy across generations and cultures.”
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Arirang Track List:
1. “Body to Body”
2. “Hooligan”
3. “Aliens”
4. “FYA”
5. “2.0”
6. “No. 29”
7. “Swim”
8. “Merry Go Round”
9. “Normal”
10. “Like Animals”
11. “they don’t know ’bout us”
12. “One More Night”
13. “Please”
14. “Into the Sun”