BTS – ARIRANG (Album Review: 5.3/10) @ Pitchfork (260324)

I’m not even joking when I’m surprised this writer didn’t give it a 1.0, extremely unprofessional person.

About what I’d rate it as well. To be clear, because I guess I have to, I don’t agree with the excessively critical takes this reviewer presents, I just agree with the rating score. I gave it a real honest go multiple times but I walked away with 2 songs in my playlist. It just didn’t really feel like a comeback album. Not saying it’s terrible or anything. But the weight of the wait and the concept they put out didn’t match up to what was delivered.

I think there’s just a disconnect with pop albums coming out right now in general. The new Harry Styles record, the Bruno record. Nothing’s sticking or connecting.

I still think this album is better than MOTS:7 so unfortunately can not agree on this.

Pitchfork seems quite 5 enthusiastic this year in terms of big pop releases (Harry, Bruno now BTS). Im stating to think their actual number system doesn’t make much sense when looking year-over-year. Some years its the 6 range as the go to default.

I personally don’t agree with the constant need to judge is BTS too westernized especially with songs on an album that speak to their own experiences, but alas to each his or her own.

Acting like No.29 is the most interesting song on an album. That’s a choice.

I wonder if the reviewer even read the lyrics for some of these songs. He seems to think the only culturally relevant songs are Body to Body & No.29, while leaving out songs like Aliens. That is a song about their BTS lived experiences being othered in the US and has multiple cultural references too. I mean I would give it a 6 just for calling out “people with those big eyes” Did he even read it?

Edit: I was informed the reviewer is Korean, so I removed my note about reading translations. I still believe omitting songs like Aliens weakens the argument he makes around Body-to-Body and No. 29.

Might get whacked for this but this is honestly a fair review. The album could’ve been a lot more meaningful, something I realized after reading Howard University’s article, but what we got sort of just feels like another derivative, messy K-pop album where Black culture gets commodified and the songs lack cohesion sonically and thematically (not to mention that the lyrics aren’t the best which I think could’ve been prevented if there was more Korean, since BTS is so popular having subpar English lyrics kind of just doesn’t go well, especially with the Western audience, but of course not everyone cares about deep lyrics so to each their own). Btw Body to Body really should’ve been the title track oml😭 Like literally the Arirang sample is perfect aside the song being a 10/10 banger

i’m not on twitter other than to buy photocards, but i saw some people talking about this guy acting up on there, and omg? i guess i’ve been out of the loop because i’m genuinely shocked to see what he’s saying, seemingly unprompted. like, why would he tweet [this](https://x.com/misterminsoo/status/2035888474557939714?s=20) after sharing that he’s reviewing their album? or quote himself with [this](https://x.com/misterminsoo/status/2035351761720938620?s=20) just to troll bts fans? jeez bad vibes…

i don’t engage much with critical journalism of any kind and everyone is entitled to their opinion, so i’m not commenting on that—just taken aback by the sns stuff (⊙︿⊙)

I just talked about how pitchfork’s reviews are ridulous when they reviewed Harry’s album few days ago. Lemme just quote my own [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/SwiftlyNeutral/comments/1rp2j92/comment/o9i6piw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button).

>Pitchfork’s reviews are way too unserious for me. It’s like someone is trying to be sassy 💅🏻 with each and every line wishing people would quote them. There’d be may be one or two line actually talking about the quality of the album.

And I still stand by that.

I don’t know man, I haven’t enjoyed a BTS project this much in a *long* time. I know everyone was expecting heavy-hitting conceptual music, but the lads wanted to have fun, you know?

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for BTS to experiment with different sounds (albeit this sounding very much like Dark & Wild’s big sister) and why is it so detrimental that they created a project for the ⚡️vibes ⚡️

The bar when it comes lyrical depth has been set very high by BTS, probably why this falls flat for some? Even then, this is miles ahead of what’s out there today (seriously, do look up the lyrics and annotations if you haven’t)

Also maybe because I LOVE the Hiphop producers on this album, this has gone straight platinum in my house. lol.

Edit: You guys are downvoting anything remotely positive (pardon me for liking something, shudder) then turn around and call us toxic. Pick a lane 😭

He could give them a 10/10 and it still would have no relevance when he’s shown himself to be an actual hater. It’s just pathetic to see people bending over backward to defend him and his comments just because BTS is getting the brunt of it.

i don’t agree with everything he says, but for the most part, this feels like a fair enough review. i wish he fleshed out why he didn’t like some of those songs in that one paragraph where he was just listing off problems with the songs. i agree about hooligan & body to body being highlights, and 2.0 & they don’t know ’bout us being the more underwhelming tracks. with little knowledge about the author, he does seem to have the credibility to write the review, though, being of korean origin (he can understand the cultural implications in a way other journalists could not). i would give the album closer to a 6 on the pitchfork scale, but well, you have to temper your expectations with pitchfork.

I have my own criticisms with this album as many but ultimately enjoyed it. It’s always interesting to read something so obviously written with a presumptive high ground of taste above the art they are reviewing, the snark undertones throughout ultimately do not present it as a critical analysis but patronising… maybe it’s just me but there’s a level of second hand embarrassment I feel when you read criticism so embroiled in getting out cutting one liners it taints even subjective criticism so blatantly

He’s been a salty kpop fan for years and was especially gleeful about getting to score Arirang low, so we knew what to expect (credibility zero @pitchfork). I don’t value this twat’s opinion at all. Moving on 

This “critic” Who reviewed this album literally hates bts and he’s been going crazy on Twitter 😭 I’m not taking his ass seriously

I remember when he reviewed Lisa’s album and everyone here is like well yeah he is correct the album sucks, and how his Deadline review was ‘generous’ but now when you don’t agree its ‘oh this guy just talks a lot of shit he is a known hater’?

So he is a known hater yet you gleefully ate up his reviews when its for artists you hate

pitchfork are known to be critical on even the tiniest things but i honestly have to say like 85% of this review is about what i wrote in my notes app while listening to the album song by song. i likened the album to watching sand pouring in an hourglass.

-lyrical depth is near zero
-singing about doing something with someone but never actually describing what they really want
-even though, yes, we know what they are singing about
-emotionless to where the listener can’t connect with what is being said with dreary, bleak vocals and repeated lyrics (everything lit it’s fireeeeee….)
-rap sections run in circles
-could not tell who was singing half the time because of the over processed autotune. and honestly, auto tune isn’t a bad thing, it just missed the mark here imo. i picked out jin’s voice once on first listen and cheered

the only decent thing about the album was some of the beats. the beat in swim with that gorgeous melody overlay was goooooood. but the song needed something more. (did i read correctly that jimin said he didn’t want swim to be the single, or had doubts about it? please correct me if im wrong or misinterpreted that. im curious as to why in an objective way, not a way to poke the bear. what did he want as the single?)

i listened to less than a handful of kpop songs before bts sucked me in, as i’m sure they did with lots of us. but this isn’t comparable to the lyrical prowess some of them are known to possess. and i wonder how proud they truly are of it. if they are happy with what they produced, good for them. but yeah idk ive never felt like i was being clowned by an album before. seriously wasn’t sure if it was real 3/4 of the way through.

if you like the album, do enjoy. sincerely (not sarcasm bc yeah still shocked).

I enjoyed this album less than I would have liked and there are some valid points in the review, but the gleeful declaration of their imminent demise is cheap rage bait. This is why I cannot take Pitchfork seriously.

you can tell who’s bitter about the album comeback in this thread by figuring how who is so desperate to legitimize this nutjob and the fact that he rated deadline higher than this.

it’s just an anti they give all kpop music to, some of these kpop subs want bts to be bad so badly it’s sad. there’s actual flaws with this comeback and then there’s you guys hoping desperately for imaginary issues and hyping up haters

This sounds more like a hater projecting than a music review?

Pitchfork losing their credibility by hiring well known BTS anti for this specifically. This guy must have thought he did something showing his obvious hate in review. Also does he think less of other music critics by giving lowest review among them?

Sometimes people are so blatantly trying too hard to be against the pack that it just becomes funny, what a silly review

the moment an album review uses the term western validation the entirety of the piece becomes invalid to me

Pitchfork publishing a music review from the person who openly hates BTS is definately a choice and calling this album a pop one makes me wants to question if he even listened to it or not.

He is not engaging with this album with a good faith from the start, if you check his twitter account amd his long history of him not liking BTS. Their is a very snarky tone to it and it feels like he copy pasted lines from snark sub. Good for him.

Also calling Teezo that, just weird

Watching the polarization surrounding this album is so fascinating. An album that manages to make some hate it and some adore it is at minimum doing something interesting! And that’s what art is.