Worldwide phenomenon BTS, a Korean Pop band, released their new album BE on November 20th, at 2 PM Korean-standard time. After the cheerful, bop “Dynamite” was released on August 3rd, the album was long-awaited by fans.

This album took us away from their debut days, through slower-paced songs, and sub-units carefully showing new talents from all the members. 

The anticipated album released during the COVID-19 pandemic talks about moving forward with their title song “Life Goes On,” while both “Fly to My Room” and “Stay” were subunits featuring sections of the members. 

This album is also the first to be fully self-produced with the members participating in different roles, including Jeon Jungkook being a director for their music video, and Park Jimin being the project manager.

In an interview with Rolling Stone India, Jimin mentioned that “we were also able to take a step further by taking roles in overall production, such as concept development, composition and visual design.”

Personally, it took me a long time to get used to “Life Goes On.” It’s an amazing song, but the sound, and tune were very different from what I have usually heard from K-Pop, and it definitely took time to get used to.

However, the lyrics in this case are even more important. It is all about moving on, even though life stops, and is definitely a comfort song during the pandemic. My favorite song on the album would probably be “Telepathy” because of its beat and chill background music.

“Life Goes On has a really different vibe as a title track, but I think the other songs definitely sound like BTS’s style so I wouldn’t say they deviated from their usual style,” said Louisa Landhuis (‘23).

All in all, fans are definitely really excited that a new album has been released during the pandemic, and it includes songs that are close to home and comforting during these trying times. I like the format and songs that BTS has done this time, and am excited to hear more from them in the future.