Having released a full-length album just this May, BTS immediately pushed out another album last August - only having 3 months gap to complete this album that I am to talk about. Love Yourself 結 'Answer' ties up the stories that have been told in the previous works released - full-length album Love Yourself 轉 'Tear', EP Love Yourself 承 'Her', and Love Yourself 起 Wonder which was only released as a short film narrating the happenings to the story in that part of the saga using the Jungkook solo track 'Euphoria'.
To clear things up, the Love Yourself series follows a storytelling composition 起承轉結 or 기승전결 - Starting off with Wonder or the 起 / 기 (gi) meaning the beginning of the plot, followed by Her or 承 / 승 (seung) or the rising part of the story leading to the climax or conflict of the story, then with Tear or 轉 / 전 (jeon) meaning the climax or the conflict of the story has risen, and Answer or 結 / 결 (gyeol) meaning the conclusion. However with the release of each work, Wonder was released after Tear and Her were already available, acting as a prequel instead.
from BTS' Euphoria video. Watch it here.
Answer contains 2 CDs - the first CD has 7 new tracks, but this part of the album has some vital tracks from Tear and Her, and they were sequenced based on the 起承轉結 order, making 'Answer' not only the conclusion to the saga, but also as means to tie up the story from start to finish. The 2nd CD, meanwhile, contains other tracks from the other 2 albums as well as some remixes and the alternate version of the title track 'Idol' that features 'Chun Li' rapper Nicki Minaj.
Entering the story with the tracks off of the Wonder part of the series, Euphoria and Just Dance convey emotions of stepping into the feelings of being in love and the euphoric sensation of being in one. Euphoria had a very space-y vibe in it, making you feel like floating with the emotions conveyed by the instrumentals and the vocals provided by the youngest of the group - Jungkook. Euphoria has very beautiful instrumentalization that makes you feel light and bright. It is overall a song that makes you feel elated. Also having to know the layers that make up the song helps you appreciate the song more, as DJ Swivel - one of the producers of the song, breaks down the song for Genius. Click here to watch.
Trivia 起: Just Dance is one of the new tracks added for this album which elaborates the Wonder part of the saga. Vocals and rap solely from J-Hope - one of the group's rappers, he sings and raps about the joy and happiness he feels when dancing. Being a dance track with dubstep sounds, this song gives the right amount of dance and dubstep and it doesn't go overboard with it, making it enjoyable to listen to. It's also great due to its positive message and it doesn't follow stereotypical dance track lyrics as J-Hope had written the lyrics from his own love for dance. I also love the breakdown at the bridge as it helps intensify the emotions conveyed in the lyrics.
Tracks from the Her part of the story follows - which includes a full-length version of Serendipity, DNA, Dimple, another new track Trivia 承: Love, and Her which served as the outro for the EP that was released in 2017. The songs continue the story in which the person still feels love toward their significant other, but the person starts to question the realness of the love that he or she feels for the other. The tracks here convey the feeling of love despite the blurring lines of being their own person and being a person that their lover wanted them to be. Sonically, they are all very light like the tracks from Wonder but if put into the context of the lyrics, it seems like an illusion to the character that they are in love.
The full-length version of Serendipity didn't really change that much from the first shorter version that was released from the Her EP. An acoustic bit was added after the earlier R&B/Electronic version of the song. I do think that that bit was unnecessary and although it is beautiful in itself, it doesn't really add much to the complexity of the earlier version of the song. But I think it is still a great listen. What has caught my attention was the lyrics. It used metaphors referencing very unique things - like the blue mold and the calico cat. They used words that we're very beautiful and romantic, which was very fitting for an R&B track.
from BTS' Serendipity Comeback Trailer video. Watch it here
After closing off that portion of the saga with Her - a rap track with an old-school hip hop sound, we enter the Tear portion opening with Singularity, which is a neo-jazz track done solely by V, followed by emo/hip-hop track Fake Love, then with ballad The Truth Untold which was co-produced by Steve Aoki, and next with another Trivia track called Trivia 轉: Seesaw which is rapper Suga's solo, and closes off the portion with the powerful and aggressive Tear which served as the outro in the full-length album that was released in May.
Trivia 轉: Seesaw is a funky sounding track that talks about being in a relationship that doesn't lead to anything anymore, hence, playing in a "seesaw" game and seeing who of the two people concerned will back out. To think of such topic, you would have a more melancholic sound but Seesaw can make you snap your fingers to the beat. To add, Suga's rapping sounded very laid back, which moves away from the emotionally driven tracks that precedes and proceeds it - The Truth Untold and Tear, which I think is great as it just clarifies the point of the song - that the person is tired and is just waiting for one of them to get out of that seesaw - a tiring game that they are playing.
We proceed to the new tracks after Tear - which contains Epiphany, I'm Fine, the lead single Idol, and closer of the album Answer: Love Myself. Epiphany is a rock ballad track that features powerful vocals from Jin. Jin's vocals give so much emotion which benefits a lot for the track. It also has poetic lyrics that will make you sing the song passionately. Conveying intense emotions from realizing that you have to love yourself, Epiphany will leave you thinking about what it is talking about yourselves.
Proceeding it is I'm Fine, which references their 2016 track Save Me from The Most Beautiful Moment In Life: Young Forever album. Starting the track with a nod to the earlier track, I'm Fine begins slower and progresses into a faster-paced track. It reminds me of anime OSTs due to how fast the tempo was. The message of the song is the complete opposite from Save Me that talks about needing the person you love to "not fall". I'm Fine is a track of independence. It is a track of hope and self-confidence.
Next is the upbeat track Idol that contains African sounds and Korean traditional exclamations used in Pansori - a kind of storytelling done with music, it is just full of cultural references that steps back from the normal pop song that you will hear on the radio. Having a very hyped sound and vibe while talking about loving yourself, Idol is a big celebratory track. It is more evident in the music video that you can watch here. BTS hasn't done such a big sounding track that it makes it very different, good different, from the rest of their discography. This is one of the things that makes me appreciate this group. They aren't afraid to try out different sounds but the sound doesn't shift too far to being very foreign to their musical identity. They make it work, and they work with it really well.
from BTS' Idol music video
Ending the album is Answer: Love Myself. It switches the order of words from the album that makes the message of the whole album a lot more obvious - the answer is to love yourself. Having such an uplifting and light sound and message, it can help anyone who needed such message be affirmed. The sound of the track vaguely reminds me of Christian or gospel music, which does the same thing Answer: Love Myself do to its listeners - feel inspired and lifted. Personally, I listened to this track specifically when I was having self-esteem issues awhile back and it really helped me to avert my thoughts and change them for some time. It really did sound like an ending to a story. It is a clean conclusion to the album and to the saga.
Answer gives a great vibe that will make listeners not skip one track. You were taken to a journey of going through all the phases of loving someone else to loving yourself and the intention really reflects through the sound of all of the tracks, especially with the lyrics. It makes the Love Yourself series a solid project that not only delivers sonically, but also lyrically through the message that BTS has meant to share to the world since early 2016 when they started planning and doing this project. An uplifting message coupled with great sounds is what makes BTS who they are and it solidifies their image and mission to the world - to spread love through their music.
Listen to the album on Spotify:
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