I don't like BTS, I've never liked BTS, I've listened to BTS. And I think that
they're incredibly overrated, just by my own subjective standards. That standard
being they're famous, and I don't like them. Hi, and welcome back to me talking about whatever
I want. Today, I want to talk about BTS's new album. Because I don't like BTS, but I do know
that if I talk about BTS's new album, I'm going to get a lot of views. But that doesn't mean I have
to ignore their existence completely or talk bad about their music. I'm still going to give their
album a chance. And if you're new to this channel, you already know how I do album reviews. I'm fair,
but I'm also honest. If I don't like it, I'm just going to say I don't like it. And if I don't like
it for no reason, I'm just going to admit that I don't like it for no reason and move on. However,
I do take music very seriously. I've listened to their new albums several times. Which is insane,
because there's over an hour and 10 minutes long. And on top of that, I know all of the lyrics. I
know what each song is about in English because I looked it up from multiple different translations.
And on top of that, I also know who's singing each part in each song. I familiarized myself
with the boy band members, found some of those color coded videos. I may not be a BTS fan, but
that doesn't mean I'm just going to be completely ignorant about who they are. This is an informed,
but honest review of BTS "Map of the Soul:7." 20 tracks, a couple of features, let's go.
All right, track one " Intro: Persona." This track is rapped by RM. And it's kind of a song
about losing track of who you are. My issue with the song though is that it's messy. And it's not
RM's fault, his delivery is pretty amazing. But the beat, what even is this beat? It has like this
rock and roll sound. It almost sounds like a joke. I don't like it. All right, of course a rap song
is more than just the beat. The lyrics are pretty amazing. He kind of talks a bit about
getting everything you wanted, but it's still not being enough to assuage the voices in your head.
It's like imposter syndrome. He also talks a bit about losing your roots,
which actually made me a bit sad. It's not a negative track because despite
all these insecurities and uncertainties it ends with the reassurance of who he is. I like it,
I like the message. The whole song is kind of summed up by they're afraid.
Who is he?. He's RM. And that's basically all you need to know about this song. Still
though the beat was so not it. It's like really deep lyrics on a wacky instrumental.
And it's like, "What's up with that?" "Boy with Luv" featuring Halsey. I don't
like it. First of all, the instrumentalist of the song is so commercial is like radio
ready? It's unoriginal. And then if that's enough,
the autotune, the autotune, oh the auto tune, It's so much. Also the delivery of the chorus
is annoying. Anyway, Halsey shows up and she's the first feature on this album. And why is she
there? She's barely there. You can hear her, but not really. The only place she is really
prominent is just one part of the chorus. Waited all my life for what? To get some
actual lines on the BTS song because it looks like you're going to have to
keep waiting. As for the lyrics honestly, it's just a commercial love song, there's
not much to say about them. I wasn't even a fan of the rap in this one. I didn't like it. Next.
"Make it Right." Okay the song was actually co-written by Ed Sheeran. And that's interesting
to keep in mind, however, that wasn't enough to make me like it. And honestly, with this being
track three, I was starting to get very worried because the auto tune was back with a vengeance.
On top of that, the beat was very similar to "Boy with Luv." I was highly concerned because I was
like, "Is this what the whole album is going to sound like?" It turns out the answer is yes and
no. This one did have better lyrics though. It's kind of still a love song, but it's about becoming
a better person. It's really nice. Also J-Hope sings in this song, which I didn't know that the
rappers in BTS could also sing. That's crazy. As you can hear, he actually has a pretty
nice voice. I'm assuming, even though I wouldn't really know because it's slathered in auto tune.
'Jamais Vu' This is a sub-unit song and it's featuring J-Hope. Jin and Jungkook. Honestly,
the three of them go really well together. First of all, Jin and
Jungkook vocals really compliment each other. It's like a very soft, nice song. And then on
top of that, we get sad J-hope. I like it. The lyrics are pretty.
They're about dealing with the pain of repeated mistakes, but not giving up no matter how far
back you get pushed. Overall it's pretty cool song. I enjoyed listening to it.
Track five. Awful, awful, awful. What is happening? It sounds like bad rap from the 90s.
It sounds like someone's WWE intro music, a wrestler would just walk out while the song
blares in the background. On top of that parts of the song don't even sound like the same song.
For example, towards the end Suga shows up and he kills it. His flow is so good on the song but it
literally does not sound like it's the same song. I wish we could just get Suga by himself. Not
that the other members are bad. It's just the production on the rest of the song is awful. The
lyrics on the other hand are incredible. They're really deep. It's written on multiple levels.
It's kind of mixing Korean folk songs with Greek mythology, which is a crazy concept. The song is
not really about getting drunk on alcohol. It's about getting drunk on art and music. Overall,
it's really neat, too bad it sounds bad. "Interlude: Shadow." All right so my wish about
getting Suga by himself came true and I couldn't be happier. This song is incredible. Sonically,
this song serves as a bridge to the next part of the album and things are getting a little
darker. See, it starts off with Suga listing off his aspirations and it's pretty chill.
But then it kind of changes. And all of a sudden those aspirations are sounding a little scary.
And then the song's just... Suga goes crazy and he starts rap arguing with his shadows.
It's legitimately terrifying, but in the best way possible.
This is the full potential of this album's concept as an exploration of psychology. In this moment,
I understood. I think is the most fully realized song towards that concept and
Suga's his shadow that he's rapping against is actually part of his subconscious. It's just
neat. It's more than I would expect from like a boy band. Easily one of the best songs on
the album basically is scary BTS is best BTS. Track seven, "Black Swan." I would literally
have to make a whole video just to tell you how pretty this song is. First of all,
the instrumental is gorgeous. On top of that, the lyrics are
intense. In fact, this is one part Jimin sings about refusing to be swallowed up.
It's some powerful stuff. This song, it's about BTS falling out of love with music,
but then not falling out of love with music because music is all they really have. It fits the
dark direction after the "Shadow:Interlude" really well, which I was happy about. And on top of that,
you don't find very much music about the love of music and that's somebody who loves music.
I just thought the song was incredible. Track eight, "Filter." All right
so Jimin's solo in the song and he does an amazing job with the vocals.
Actually, he still has a little twinge of dark, not just in the music itself,
but the lyrics they're not necessarily healthy. They're still fun so honestly who cares?
It's just a cool fun song. All right, next we have "My
Time." Which is a solo song from Jungkook and it's basically just Jungkook flexing his vocals
for four minutes straight, but he deserves it, if y'all had told me this man can sing this well...
Okay then he's my favorite vocalist from BTS hands down. Besides being a stellar vocal
performance. It also just doubles as very nice R&B. Overall, this song is going in my playlist.
All right. Track 10, "Louder than Bombs." The song is actually co-written by Troye Sivan, which was
cool. He has like this cool thing on the chorus. I like it. The thing is it's a very standard BTS
song. And I can say that confidently, having just listened to nine BTS songs in a row. It's
not a bad song, it's just not particularly out of the box or interesting to me. The lyrics though,
the lyrics are very interesting. First of all, they are heavy and they're like extremely sad.
In fact, this was the first song on this album so far that didn't end on a positive note.
But then we got a whole positive song. Sonically at least, this track "On" has this real gospel
vibe to it. It's a super fun instrumental. I was really excited to hear the thinking and
then I was instantly deflated because guess who's back the auto tune and it's back with a vengeance.
"I can't understand what people are saying." We can't understand what you're saying because
you sound like a robot my guy. This is track 11, we're halfway through the album and at this point,
the album was starting to blend together. Part of it was how similar some of the songs were.
The majority of it was literally just the auto tune. Started kind of sounding like
this electronic singular song. And honestly, these people are talented enough to not need auto tune,
was a little confused by that. However, in spite of this, Jungkook delivers the most stunning
performance, maybe on the album, he hits these notes on this one part and it's just like...
Okay, then. Track 12, "UGH" The only thing 'ugh' about this song is the title. Everything else is
phenomenal. This song features BTS rap line, which is of course RM, Suga and J-Hope. And they kill
this beat. There's this one part specifically where J-Hope hits this flow and it's flawless.
I like it, don't stop. On top of that this track is just so angry,
it's amazing. The lyrics are very pointed, but they're angry at people for being angry over
nothing. Even though the track is delivered in an angry way, it's more so an exploration
of anger and how negative it is and its effects are. Also towards the end the beat just goes so
hard it should literally be illegal. Perfection! "00:OO(Zero o'clock)." This song features BTS'
singers so that's Jimin, Jin, V and Jungkook and honestly the song is boring. It's very mainstream,
very commercial. It's similar to a lot of songs I've heard before.
But on top of that, it just sounds dated. It has nice lyrics, but it's a weak song.
Track 14, "Inner Child." This is V's first solo track on this album and he got played.
They did him dirty. This track is not... No. We going change is such.... no. And what's
with all the 'Oh', is that really necessary in the background? It sounds like a church
worship service, you know what I mean? It sounds like music from a commercial
targeting Gen Z. You know what I'm saying? All Right. Track 15, "Friends." This song is
performed by Jimin and V. And it's hilarious. Basically just to grown men singing a love
friendship song to each other. What I'm trying to say here is, I love this song so much.
It's really cheesy, but really soulful. I did not know V belting out "You are
my soulmate" at the top of his lungs was something that I needed to hear...
But I am so glad that I heard it. All right. "Moon." Track 16, the album was
almost over and I'm kind of glad because I don't like this song. It sounds very similar to "Inner
Child". Just take all the criticism I gave towards the track "Inner Child" and apply it to this song.
Track 17, "Respect." I was seriously losing interest in the album at this
point. This song is by RM and Suga. And it sounds like another bad 90s rap song.
There's a cool sample in the beginning though. I don't know whether it sampled
from, but it sounds nice. I like that. That's about it.
Track 18, "We are Bulletproof: the eternal." I guess, since we're towards the end of the album,
they just wanted to hit us in the fields and that they did.
That is the most heartfelt song on the album. It's kind of like a BTS Anthem. It's very dramatic
and powerful and good. I'd imagine if you were a longtime fan of BTS, then the song would probably
be really moving to you. But honestly I have to say, even though somebody just casually listening
to their album, because it's there, I can still recognize that the song is pretty incredible.
And the last original track for this album, "Outro:Ego." This whole song is performed by
J-Hope and it's a song. It's not a bad song, it's simple. It's a nice, joyful finish to the album.
It's like good vibes on ironically. The final of the track on the
album and is a remix of "ON." Featuring Sia, but she's barely there. What was the point?
Okay, so my closing thoughts, auto tune. That's all I'm going to remember tomorrow. Why was there
so much auto tune on this album? Now here's the thing, I don't even always dislike auto tune.
In fact, I like certain performers solely because of their auto tune Travis Scott, Post Malone, Don
Toliver but on this album, it just sounded bad. It was excessive, it was robotic. And as I pointed
out, it caused a lot of the songs to just blend into each other. More over, it was unnecessary.
These people can sing. Who did that? BTS, why did you let somebody do that to you? Beyond that the
album has too many tracks, far too many tracks. If an album is going to be like one hour and 16
minutes or however long it is, it has to be really engaging otherwise, it's going to feel long.
And I think it was quite engaging in the beginning, but towards the end,
it definitely felt long. A lot of the tracks on the second half of the album are lyrically
redundant and it just dragged on and on. It was not pleasant for me, honestly, towards the end
there. Those are my main negatives of the album. Overall though, the songwriting was a consistent
win. The whole concept of the album was incredible. They delivered an entire album
focused around exploring psychology through music. On top of that, their performances were
flawless. All seven of them, Jimin's vocal style, Jin's high notes, Jungkook's literal everything,
V's deep notes, RM's power, Suga's versatility and J-Hope's carefree delivery. They all came together
on this album to create an amazing product. And that product gets a B minus. Minus one
that regrade for auto tune and redundant songs. They were just too many. Why were they 20 songs?
Anyway, do I still just like BTS after all of this? Yeah. It was good music,
but this was still very much in the vein of all their other music, which I already
didn't like before listening to this. They're good artists and I definitely understand why
they're so popular now, definitely more now than I did before listening to the album. When
I'm just minding my own business and going to chill, I'm not going to put on BTS. Well,
okay. I might put on "My Time" by Jungkook. Other than that, I'm not going to be listening
to BTS on my downtime. Their style isn't for me and that's fine. That's allowed,
it's for obviously a lot of people. My final word is that the album felt
like a 2000s boy band album that somebody sends to the future and asked people from 2014 to
mix and master, and that's not inherently bad. And if you like that sort of thing,
I think it's a really good album. It's just not something that I really get anything out of.
That's my review of BTS "Map of the Soul:7." I remain fair and more importantly, I was honest.
But I did my best to educate myself on the members and everything. Though, I am aware I may have
messed up some names or some pronunciations or maybe certain things like that. But I promise,
I didn't mean to. I really spent hours in preparation, just getting all the lyrics
together and putting the little pictures up on screen. Really, I cared a lot about this video
because I cared about listening to the album. You know what I mean? I still wanted to do a good job.
But it's still probably going to have a ton of just like from BTS fans, who only listened to the
first 30 seconds where I said, I didn't like BTS and then clicked off. Anyway, honestly who cares.