Homecoming to BTS’s ARIRANG

When two people are apart, for whom is the separation more painful: the one who makes the other wait, or the one who does the waiting? In December 2022, BTS announced a hiatus to fulfill their mandatory military service in South Korea. I was then several years into being an avid listener, and while heartbreaking in its own right, their goodbye did not feel final. Maybe it was just a fangirl’s delusional optimism, given that boy bands are notorious for their so-called brief and indefinite hiatuses from which they never return (read: One Direction). But this felt different—BTS themselves clarified that they weren’t disbanding, but only spending “some time apart to learn how to be one again.” The next few years of waiting were made a little less grueling thanks to all seven members—RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook—releasing solo music, and a few who also went on tours before enlisting in the military. But the teenager in me who first heard Blood Sweat & Tears on a random afternoon in 2018 (and subsequently, permanently fell down the rabbit hole) longed to see all seven back together.  

ARIRANG, released on March 20, is BTS’s first full-group studio album in nearly four years. A simple Google search of the word brings you to a long list of results. Arirang is the name of a 600-year-old Korean folk song about a loved one travelling over a hill or mountain pass, perhaps never to be seen again. Arirang is also the first Korean song ever recorded by seven Korean men who travelled to Washington, D.C., USA, in 1896 (Provine, 2009). In a recent Vogue interview, BTS said that growing up in Korea, nobody was ever really taught about Arirang or its lyrics for that matter, but somehow everyone seemed to just know what it meant. Its meaning changes depending on who says it to whom, and when: it can be a frank expression of love, a confession of regret at parting, or even an anti-colonial resistance anthem (Kim, 2026). Listening to ARIRANG, the album, makes you feel a bit of all of these.  

ARIRANG is in many ways a return to BTS’s roots but with a more refined and experienced sound. Indeed, the first half of the album is marked by the rap-heavy hip-hop style reminiscent of their early music. Body to Body opens with “I need the whole stadium to jump”—a fitting demand for a group renowned for its large-scale, premium-production stadium tours that sell out in mere minutes. The song ends with a heartfelt, thirty-seconds sample of the original folk song Arirang, sung by a choir of traditional singers. The next few tracks are sonically upbeat and audacious: Hooligan, which builds on the crisp sound of sharpening knives; the energetic, Jersey club–inspired “FYA”; and “2.0,” pulsing with rhythmic thrums and edgy trap production. They are all part victory anthem and part diss track, where BTS confront their haters and naysayers (“Had your little fun, fella?), making it clear that they’ve come back for what’s theirs and are here to stay. While the band gained international repute several years ago and quickly became a household name, this did not make them immune to racism within the Western music industry. They’ve endured everything from anti-Asian slurs and mockery over their appearance to xenophobia in award spaces like the Grammys (Korea View & Prassley, 2022). The 808-beat-style Aliens calls out this othering and prejudice, referencing Korean cultural habits that make them different (“If you wanna hit my house / take your shoes off at the door”) and embracing them as integral to their identity. 

After the manic synergy of these tracks, the interlude, No. 29, arrives as a moment of relief: a singular toll of South Korea’s Sacred Bell, lasting for a minute and thirty-eight seconds until it fades into silence. The album then transitions into a mellower mood with the synth-pop title song SWIM. Lyrics like “Swim, swim / this is how it all begins” seem to herald a kind of rebirth, a reinstatement of BTS’s resolve in this new chapter of their career. They’ve turned their face from the land now and are ready to go where the tide takes them. 

While Merry Go Round has a sweet, psychedelic melody, it carries a distinct undercurrent of pathos. BTS say they’re on a “broken roller coaster” that they can’t get down from, and the lines “I do my best, but I can’t slow down / this merry-go-round” capture the relentless momentum of a life that propelled them into the spotlight. But fame comes at a price: not being able to slow down. They echo this need for a break in NORMAL (“Wish I had a minute to turn me off”), even as they concede that this fast-paced life is the norm for them. In Like Animals, they push further towards acceptance, their siren-like voices embracing the life of passion they have built for themselves: “Eat this life till your heart is full.” In the earworm they don’t know ‘bout us, this tension evolves into defiance—they wear the crown and bear its weight proudly, and this is exactly what makes them different. For industry moguls desperate to manufacture the “next BTS” and find the perfect formula to their success, the answer is simple: they can “Do the math” all they want, but there is no next BTS. They are a once-in-a-lifetime act. 

One More Night and Please are the album’s most pop- and R&B-leaning tracks. In soft-pedalled notes they sing of a love so sweet it feels like a fantasy, one they wish would last forever. The falsetto ad-libs and careful layering of one voice on top of another creates a seamless cohesion, so much so that it feels as if they aren’t singing for the listener, but for each other. Into the Sun’s vocoder-drenched vocals create an intimate, early-morning feel complemented by the acoustic guitar. “You call / I run /… I follow you into the sun.” It’s the final song on the album, the kind you’d listen to on a road trip with your friends while looking out the car window and knowing you’ll remember this moment for life. 

In the week of its release, ARIRANG sold 641,000 copies, spent the next three weeks #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and amassed over 2.6 billion Spotify streams. All North American, European, and UK stadium dates for their upcoming world tour have also sold out. But there is nothing surprising about these numbers—BTS have long been known as chart-topping superstars whose concerts contribute billions to South Korea’s economy (Lyu, 2024). What’s special about this comeback is that it feels like the work of a lifetime. For new listeners, ARIRANG has something for everyone: club bangers to dance to, songs for when you’re in desperate need of a break from life, or melancholic melodies to soundtrack moments of intense yearning. But for long-time fans like me, this album feels like a homecoming. In Come Over, a hidden track on the deluxe vinyl edition, they ask, “Why don’t we put behind us / what happened to us since that day we were separated?” Indeed, ARIRANG is a reassurance that the wait is over, and it is now time to walk into the sea.