BTS- 'Arirang' FULL ALBUM REACTION (90 minutes)

Thank you for your reaction. I joined last week and am loving your content! I can’t wait to see a lot of these songs live in less than a week 💜

please do a deep dive on Into the Sun please

Love your commentary as always ❤️ Excited to revisit this album alongside you your commentary always brings me huge insight into my favorite artists!!!

Hey Tim following your YouTube for the last year and joined here finally to watch this :) It was great thank you! I love how genuine your reactions and explanations, thank you for being open and honest in your videos. I just watched you almost cry in the Click Clack symphony video and it felt real. So excited for the color coded individual song videos you mentioned, hope they come soon! You might really know them enough to distinct their voices after those maybe :) it's needed

We aren't shocked. This goes straight back to their hip hop roots but evolved. We joke it is like 'Dark & Wild''s older sister. My rock/alt rock/BTS heart is loving this album so much. I am digging BTS's new direction in their 2.0 journey and can't wait for the tour stops and future albums. Swim makes sense to me as the lead single because it was similar to "hi, we are back" and gently sinks us into an album that is a hell of a ride.

On first (and second and third) listen, I really liked this album. Then I got on TikTok and saw discourse about the Howard thing, and saw a lot of hate on the production & the English lyrics, and started to let it color my perception. Coming back and listening to it twice after a few days — once with my spouse, and now with you, Tim — I’ve righted myself. A lot of what you said made me realize, “no, that DID genuinely resonate with me before, and then I let the internet convince me that it didn’t.” So thank you for this; I feel…vindicated? Whatever the feeling, even as a very casual listener of BTS, I’m glad I’m back to enjoying the album.

I was today days old when I found out that Jimin is singing the intro from They Don't Know About Us. Wtf. How is that not a sample

omg love this, can you react to the recent live performance they did for arirang, especially 'like animals'- its on netflix and there are also fancams of it on youtube, pls react to it

This is a genuine no-skip album to me. Even no. 29 is sooo necessary. I fortunately have Apple Music so you can really hear the bell the entire way through and the frequencies are sooo relaxing it really calms my brain down.

Thank you so much for this! I just joined your patreon after watching your YouTube videos. I love exploring deeper into songs and you teach me so much every time I watch one of your videos. I appreciate you sharing your musical knowledge. This album is amazing and I really enjoyed your reaction and analysis. I look forward to seeing what other BTS content you react to next. I also think it would be cool for you react to the Netflix comeback. Seeing their performance and the new songs is just incredible. They are such talented artists; the songs alone are enough to make them stand out, but the fact that they dance and sing is mind blowing. Thank you again :) Also, I have so many other BTS song ideas for you to react to so I'll share that on the discord chat.

So glad you enjoyed the album. I enjoyed it a lot on first listen, but the more times I’ve heard it from top to bottom the more I’m REALLY loving it. The production is so excellent and seeing the members perform it live on the Netflix stage gave me even greater appreciation for how awesome this album will be on tour. My current favourites are Body to Body, Aliens, SWIM, NORMAL, Like Animals, they don’t know ‘bout us, and very recently Into the Sun. I’m sure it will continue to change though! More than anything I enjoyed listening to the album top to bottom. I’ve grown fond of No.29 for how it divides the album and gives me a second to process before the later tracks. I think it was so exciting for the members to be able to work with some of their favourite hip hop and experimental producers, and it really comes through on the album. In interviews they’ve mentioned how happy they were to learn and create so freely without following any template, and I’m thrilled they had the opportunity! A really interesting decision they made was to put choreography to some of the super experimental tracks like 2.0 and Hooligans along with SWIM, and it is SO FUN to see them dance to all the weird beats and samples. I would really recommend reacting to the Netflix live, at least for a few of the new songs performed (Body to Body, Hooligans, FYA, Aliens, 2.0, SWIM, NORMAL, and Like Animals). It would be a great way for you to analyze their vocals with less effects and it’s also just a super exciting moment as their first concert back after so long. ARMY would be happy to give you an image of the members matched with their names like you do for a Killing Voice. Great reaction! I’m glad the lyrics were helpful—and I am also on a hunt to find the sample in “they don’t know ‘bout us” because I love that track so I will let you know :)

I think hearing your thoughts to the live special on Netflix will be interesting. Similar to how you did Stray Kids concert and thought back to the recording

For No. 29, RM was invited to personally ring the bell, but was unable to do so due so scheduling conflict

Honestly, when I first listened to the album, I could tell it had really evolved from their earlier work. But after replaying it multiple times, I started to hear hints of their solo styles coming through. Then, when I watched the comeback show on Netflix, everything clicked—their voices felt like the BTS I know again, but with a fresh twist. Seeing them perform their parts brought everything together in a way that felt complete after such a long time. I don’t have a clear favorite yet, but I really like “Body to Body,” “Hooligan,” “FYA,” and “Into the Sun.” One thing I noticed—and really enjoyed—is how some songs have intros and outros that feel completely different from the main track. It almost feels like if you stitched those parts together, they could create an entirely new song. I’d love for you to do a reaction to the comeback show so you can actually see who’s singing each part—it makes it so much more fun to follow along and figure it out. Honestly, every song on this album feels worth diving into more deeply. Each member has such a distinct vocal color, which makes them all stand out in their own way. There’s so much depth in this group that I’m sure you’ll find amazing—from the rap line to the vocal line. I’m really looking forward to more of your reactions, and I’d love for you to get to know them even better.

Hey Tim, we have been waiting for this!!! I really appreciate your insights on the production and music, as it helps me see the songs in a different light I do want to address your questions about the overall balance of English and Korean in the album. I don't mind that English is dominant. My issue was more that they titled the album Arirang. Something I realized as this album came out is that the word Arirang means different things to different people. So it created certain expectations of what the album should show, and in a way that wasn't fair to the group. The group explained in interviews that using the word Arirang was about highlighting their shared identity as a Korean group, as well as feelings of love, longing, and hardship, which they wanted to convey to their fans through the album. They also talked about how excited they were to work with different producers and how much they learned through the process. To answer your questions about the bell in No. 29, the last time the bell was rung was in 2025, and before that in 2003. They stopped ringing the bell regularly due to concerns about damage. Personally, I love the production/beat of Body to Body, and the Arirang at the end of the song. Lyrically, I love Aliens. My favorite lyrics are in this song, which is RM rapping "Pardon, Kim Gu sunsangnim tell me how you feel, I'm the only one who speaks English, but that is how we kill" and "Take Your Shoes Off" LOL, the amount of times I have to say that to my non-Asian friends who come into my house. From the back half of the album, I like Please the most. For a deep dive, I think it would be awesome if you could also watch some of their comeback live performances, as it is a different experience to hear them sing live. Body to Body, Hooligan, and 2.0 are the first 3 songs they performed, and they converted my opinion of Hooligan after their live performance. Also, Like Animals didn't catch my ear in the album, but after their live performance, I love it.

From debut in 2013-2015 they really leaned into an American rap hip-hop style. Part of why they were so different from traditional K Pop. The even did a show called American Hustle Life where they worked with several American artists. For this album they also worked with a lot of American producers and did a song camp for a few months in LA. This is definitely going back to their personal roots in music

They did a song camp in LA (doc drops on Netflix on March 27) but they don’t live there. 💜 The bell is fragile and rarely rung. But now its tone is charting. I think it would be good to dive a little deeper into one where you have a live performance. Always hits differ key and you can see/hear the members. They’re just starting promo, so you should see stuff, like Fallon, this week.