Only 3 short months after the release of their record-breaking 3rd full length album ‘Love Yourself: Tear’, BTS are back with the final instalment of their series for self love ‘Love Yourself: Answer.’
Compiled together are the two previous instalments ‘Her’ and ‘Tear’ with the additional 9 songs of ‘Answer’ to craft a journey of loving, losing and finding yourself again. Even the formation of the track list for the first disc takes the listener on the journey that BTS have created over the past two years.
The first third of the album is dedicated to love, highlighted by latest tracks Euphoria, Trivia: Just Dance, the full length edition of ‘Her’ intro Serendipity and Trivia: Love. Combined the songs tell the story of finding someone who causes you to feel, quite simply euphoric, and it just feels right. While combined they tell the same story, each song has its own feel; Euphoria reflects the bright, overwhelming feelings of love, Trivia: Just Dance holds a retro sounds, Serendipity is a soft, dreamlike slow jam which mirrors exactly how the early stages of a relationship feel like. RM explores the meanings of what the word ‘love’ means in Trivia: Love and shows the growth of himself and his views while doing so. The production of each individual track from the lyrics to the instrumental molds together to create the exact idea of what love is supposed to feel like and BTS executed this perfectly.
The middle third of the ‘Answer’ reflects the loss of love and the pure heartbreak and loss of who you are can be perfectly seen during the album. Trivia: Seesaw sits in between the ‘Tear’ tracklist here and is a unique track to pay attention to. By paper it is an emotional track with the lyrics tackle the complications of understanding that a relationship was hanging by its last thread and the ‘what ifs’, however the instrumental is a boppy track. Seesaw seems to almost show the two sides to a failed relationship; the upset and the relief of something ending that was no longer worth it.
The final third brings the listener to the core message of this series, self love. The four remaining songs speak upon self love and realising what you should have done the whole time. Jin’s solo track Epiphany touchs upon losing yourself and regaining the love you gave to someone else to yourself while I’m Fine follows on from this message. This song in particular is incredible clever and show’s off BTS’ creativity as it stems from 2016 release Save Me. The track sits as a response to the previous song and flips it’s lyrics into a new meaning instead of needing to be saved to realising you will be okay. Answer: Love Myself is an emotional journey and easily is one of the most heartbreaking yet warming BTS songs to date. The mid tempo ballad carries the message of how important it is to love ourselves and how the members sing ‘you show me I have reasons I should love myself’ and ‘I’m learning how to love myself’ which alone stands as such a vital message for listeners.
Title track IDOL is an explosive carnival of celebration into loving yourself with traditional Korean instruments combining themselves with African beats. Lyrically, it a bright festivity of celebrating and accepting yourself for who you are and not what others label you as. Ultimately, it is the perfect single to round off the Love Yourself series.
The messages that BTS are displaying through Love Yourself: Answer carries such a vital meaning; self love is an incredibly difficult journey but is completely worth it. BTS have proven themselves time and time again to release quality music and convey important messages while doing so and whilst it is a shame to see the end to an important series, it only gives excitement to what they will release in the future.
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