After the energy of the five opening songs, we hear the resonant toll of The Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok – one of Korea’s national treasures – and BTS slip into a more contemplative mode.
Swim, the album’s first single, is subtle and restrained, the sort of music that drifts lazily into your ears before getting stuck on your internal radio.
Chiefly written by band leader RM, it’s a song about surrendering to the currents of life and moving forward, even when the tide threatens to pull you under.
It’s a theme that recurs on subsequent tracks – perhaps suggesting that BTS were wary about dipping their toes back into the choppy waters of fame.
“My life is a broken roller coaster, but maybe I’m the only one to blame,” they sing on the melancholy Merry Go Round. “I do my best, but I can’t slow down this merry go round.”
The subsequent track, Normal, is billed as “exploring the space between spotlight and silence” and expresses ambivalence about the cost of celebrity, with lyrics about surviving criticism and having to fake happiness for the cameras.
“Now I understand the truth, some pain is real / If everything’s just happy, that ain’t real.”
Those songs will undoubtedly be scrutinised by fans, especially after Jungkook recently posted, and then deleted, a livestream video in which he shared his frustrations with life as a K-Pop idol.
But the album also makes it clear BTS have re-committed to this career. As they sing on Normal: “Fantasy and fame, they’re the things we choose.”
And there’s a cheeky riposte to their critics on the jazzy potboiler They Don’t Know ‘Bout Us: “You say we changed? We feel the same.”