BTS release their comeback album today, ‘ARIRANG’, after retiring from the stage to go into the military. The title, ‘ARIRANG’, refers to a “sad farewell” in Korean and refers to the most popular traditional song in South Korea.
‘ARIRANG’ is BTS’ sixth album recorded in Korean, their tenth overall (the group has released four albums in Japanese), and the first since 2014 to feature all seven members on the cover, now dressed in suits.
The album has notable collaborations in the production, such as Diplo, Tame Impala, Flume, JPEGMAFIA and two Spaniards: El Guincho and Fakeguido (former collaborator of Bad Gyal). At the same time, it is one of the BTS works in which its members have most participated in the composition, since almost all of them appear in the credits of several songs.
RM, for example, co-writes the debut single, ‘SWIM’, alongside regular Ryan Tedder and other songwriters. ‘SWIM’ is a mid-tempo pop-R&B that totally follows the line of the latest Justin Bieber and that today we choose as the Song of the Day.
It’s easy to understand why ‘SWIM’ has been selected as the official single, as its melancholic melody reflects the meaning of the album’s title, and its lyrics seem to comment on today’s world. “I’m gone and I still rise in this crazy world,” the band sings. “Tell me a single place on this map where I can breathe.” This painful farewell can only be related to BTS’s retirement to perform military service, and it is no coincidence that the ‘SWIM’ video clip has a naval theme, with the band members embarking in the Atlantic.
The clip is a tremendous maritime blockbuster that features the participation of American actress Lili Reinhart, known for her role in ‘Riverdale’. She represents the person BTS addresses in ‘SWIM’, converted into a kind of emotional ocean in which the members take refuge to escape from the outside world.
