Here it is. On friday Nov. 3 the solo album by the youngest and most versatile member of BTS, Jung Kook has been released. This concludes the first churn of solo albums released in what has been dubbed by themselves as Chapter two. The second chapter follows the one that saw their debut in 2013 and took them all the way to that day in mid-June 2022, when they announced that they would be taking a break from group activities in order to freshen up their artistic vein a bit and, no less, fulfilling their civilian duties in the army.
Since that day, experienced by most of us fans as a very painful and unnecessary – but not unexpected – Armageddon, there has not been a single moment of rest: in July, j-hope let the dances begin with Jack in The Box, his second solo album (the first one, Hope World, was released in 2018); in October it was the turn of The Astronaut, a “monographic” album by Jin – the oldest member of the group and the first one to leave for the army. Then RM’s Indigo came, released in early December; in March it was Face, Jimin’s mini-album; a little later, D-DAY, SUGA’s full album was out, followed by a long tour ended in August, just in time for the release of V’s mini-album Layover, in early September.
To cap off this musical whirlwind, a few days ago came GOLDEN, a full album of 11 songs, of which two/three – Seven feat. Lacto in its dual Clean and Explicit versions and 3D feat. Jack Harlow – released as pre-debut tracks.
The lead song is Standing Next To You, a truly dragging song whose music seems to have been written by a centipede Frankenstein born from the assemblage of Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars and Harry Styles.
Seven, the first pre-release track, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was at the top for seven consecutive weeks; it still militates in it today, as well as in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, US excluded and not. This mind-blowing chart success is the manifestation of an even more majestic fact: the track became the fastest in history to surpass 1 billion listens on Spotify.
For these reasons, as well as for the simple fact that talking about BTS always makes good numbers, reviews, comments, and articles have multiplied with the album release. And this fact that talking about BTS gets very much attention, as well as to us at koreami.org it seems to be very clear even to some unspecified rappers from the Italian scene.
Everything and more has been said about this album. Expectations on Jung Kook’s shoulders were sky high, and he himself helped keep the bar at a superhuman level: within hours of the release of the title track he said he felt very confident about its success.
That there would be criticism could have been imagined the moment the tracklist came out, and two facts were immediately glaring: one, the songs would be all and only in English; and two, Jung Kook did not participate in the writing, either of the lyrics or the music, and did not take part in the process of producing the tracks: he “only” chose them.
While the former fact brought displeasure especially to many early ARMYs (those pre-pandemic ones, accustomed to bilingual hits and fond of Hangul), the latter found its way also into major magazines.
Many of the music journalists were indeed somewhat disappointed. For example, and first and foremost, by the chosen lyrics, considered for good measure too simple. Mary Siroki on Consequence writes:
Less memorable is his collaboration with DJ Snake, “Please Don’t Change.” Jung Kook shines on the verses, but maybe a chorus that features repetitions of “Please don’t change, because I love you the way you are” doesn’t hit the same after you’ve heard him deliver a sentiment as eloquent and lovely as “I hear the ocean from far away/ Across the dream, past the woods/ Following this clarity, take my hands now,” as he does in his BTS solo track “Euphoria.”
And no one can blame you, dear Mary!
Jung Kook certainly has excellent songwriting characteristics, having proved himself being able to write magnificent lyrics, full of pathos, evocative images, sometimes real musical sceneries.
Still, again Mary Siroki speaks of “stereotypical lyricism” referring to Too sad to dance, while Rihan Daly from the lines of the NME claims that “some b-sides” are “not memorable.” He talks about Somebody as a lackluster song, noting among other things, and rightly so, a peculiar mixing of Jung Kook’s voice in the first verse, which he calls “strange.” And indeed for a good 20 seconds the singer does not sound like Jung Kook.
Basically, Daly’s bottom line, but I would also say that of Mari Siroki and others, is that Jung Kook is an outstanding performer, but that some of the songs he chose to perform are not “on his level.”
Talking about the album from a vocal point of view, Daly even claims that GOLDEN “does not sound like an album that he and only he could have released,” delegating to the sole (as if it is a not so important element) Jung Kook’s performance the task of positively qualifying the whole work.
Another observation that has been made is that the album does not dare enough, that it does not move out of a comfort zone of meaning, speaking exclusively about an obvious and too mainstream theme such as love, the pivot par excellence in music and art in general – always and forever. Again, that the album was too sharply divided into two parts from a narrative point of view, describing in an almost geometric way the parable of a love story that begins and ends, or that it is too “explicit” in its referring even (even, how dare he, at 26?) to sexual experiences.
Alexis Petridis on The Guardian even named GOLDEN an “orgiastic realm,” claiming that “[BTS fans] are so devoted that if Jung Kook had started his solo career with a cover of Carcass’ Crepitating Bowel Erosion,” a not-so-catchy song it would seem, “they would have sent that to the top spot” of the charts as well.
Those who write reviews certainly know how to do their job, and most of the technical objections (simple lyrics, “weird” vocal mixing) seem to me quite objective and difficult to refute; the rest – one song liking less than another, boredom compared to the overall theme of the album – are personal observations that still find their place in the context of an article, or in general public discourse on any subject.
As an ARMY, I could devote myself to countering some of the criticisms, and as you may have guessed in the intimacy of my brain I have done so.
I could quote all the interviews I have read and translated, in which Jung Kook explains why he chose to sing in English, saying he wanted to test himself as a human and as an artist with a language he does not master; I could recall when he said he realized he had no stories of his own to tell at this particular time in his life, and therefore decided to rely on the pen of other writers; or again when he made explicit why he chose these very 11 tracks, which speak-yes! also about sex (“In the end, how old am I?” asks poor Peter JK Pan to people who would like to stay forever on a very unfunny Neverland), or when he claims to have chosen love as the topic for the album because it is a universal theme, a language that everyone can understand.
I could, again, mention how vital it is for BTS to try to break language barriers through music. Singing in English for them can be a great way to “hear” in their voice and on their tongue the crumbling of these cultural walls.
As a music lover, on the other hand, I might point out that not all great musicians are songwriters, that the world needs great voices as well as great lyricists, and that relying on other people’s sensibilities and phrasing can be a great way for an artist to explore some other “inner” worlds. I could argue that not every musical album has to be inspired by something or someone, for example, by great philosophers of the past – Carl Jung to name one – and that love has always been and always will be the greatest source of inspiration for all humans, all the more so if they are artists. I could talk about the devotion and gratitude of a fandom for its artist and cite dozens of virtuous and magnificent examples of this kind of relationship. I could, descending into minutiae, dwell on the study of pronunciation that embellishes two fairly standard words like “tears” and “cheers” in Shot full of tears…I could say so many things.
However, I will say the only one that really makes sense to me, and which represents a universal and incontrovertible truth: music is heard with the ears but felt with the heart. And this applies all the more to BTS.
We can say all we want about GOLDEN and every single track, we can put everything under a giant microscope, fleecing every note and analyzing word by word every lyrics’ line. But at the end of the day, the difference is always made by our fingers and what our heart prompts them to look for in our playlists.
We all just need to wait and see what our fingers, those of us ARMYs and of who have been called “agnostic listener,” will tell us about GOLDEN.
Cited articles:
Find Mary Siroki’s article for Consequence here.
Find Rihan Daly’s article for NME here.
Find Alexis Petridis’ article for The Guardian here.
