You Never Walk Alone - BTS (2017)

A recommendation from the love of my life, Nancy.

biographical aside #1: Without going too far into it, BTS is a big part of my life because my wife is a massive fan. I hear them a lot. Like, a LOT. But I love her and they’ve been really good for her, so that’s how it goes sometimes when you love somebody.

I don’t have much opinion on their abilities as dancers, heartthrobs, or constituting roughly 37% of the Internet. So it’s pretty much down to the songs, the singing, and the rapping.

Musically, there’s a lot going on here. It’s pretty standard pop, but it’s all very well produced and sounds great on my setup. I don’t speak Korean to appreciate it but according to Wiki: “Heavily influenced by Hermann Hesse’s coming of age novel, Demian, the concept album thematically deals with temptation and growth.” It’s also interesting to read how much the band members were involved in both writing and production. So call them a boy band if you must, but what you’re hearing is clearly not just a corporate product. They have a good feel for making songs that combine sung and rapped verses without sounding like they’re just duct-taping a feature into it.

I feel like they tackle more complex vocal harmonies on later songs than these, or maybe that wasn’t the focus here. But when they do sing together it always sounds flawless. I mean, KPop idols get literal years of vocal training so I shouldn’t be surprised. But it does sound good.

Biographical aside #2: modern commercial rap often doesn’t appeal to me because there’s more murder, explicit sex, and toxic masculinity in it than in most of the fantasy novels I read. It often ends up using that confrontation and controversy to cover up the fact that the flows aren’t very good, and the beats simplistic and lazy. I’m not some pearl-clutching concern-trolling Tucker Carlson motherfucker; I’m more of an old school skill-first rap nerd. But to be worth pouring that lyrical nonsense into my head, it has to be musically exceptional and a lot of it falls short of that. Just my view.

I believe 3 of the 7 BTS members are primarily rappers, and the rap flow is quite good: not at all amateurish, rhythmically complex, and dancing in and out of the beat. It’s especially good on the “BTS Cypher 4” track. I have no idea what they’re talking about, but I know they tend to be relentlessly positive, so I doubt it’s very objectionable.

So do I love BTS? No. But I don’t have to love them to appreciate what they’ve accomplished here: It’s a smooth mix of trans-global pop that’s a complete product.

Tracks I Liked

Stigma - a modern R&B sort of exercise with nice harmonies

MAMA - upbeat happy tune with some subtle and not-so-subtle club vibes.

Am I Wrong - starts on a vocal loop, adds in something that sounds like synth stabs trying to mimic R&B horns. Builds to a lot of interesting places.