REVIEW BTS revisits roots, swims forward on new album 'ARIRANG'

K-pop boy band BTS / Courtesy of BigHit Music

By Pyo Kyung-min

• Published Mar 20, 2026 1:01 PM KST
• Updated Mar 22, 2026 4:57 PM KST

K-pop juggernaut’s tradition-meets-future release sweeps away doubts over comeback

K-pop juggernaut BTS has released its fifth full-length album, “ARIRANG,” marking the group’s first studio project together in nearly four years and signaling what the members describe as the start of a new chapter, “BTS 2.0.”

The 14-track record follows the 2022 anthology album “Proof” and was shaped through extended songwriting sessions involving all seven members. Part of that work took place in Los Angeles, where dozens of demo tracks were developed and refined.

Built around themes of identity, growth and shared experience, “ARIRANG” is framed by the group as a reflection of BTS' identity today. The title draws from the Korean folk song long associated with longing and resilience, an idea the band said it aimed to reinterpret in a contemporary pop context.

Following the release, BTS is set to begin major promotional activities, including a large-scale comeback performance at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square that will be livestreamed globally through Netflix.

Roots, risk, sound of return

Yet promotional scale alone does not explain what “ARIRANG” is trying to do.

After nearly four years without a full-group release, BTS returns not with hesitation but with a statement of scale and intent. The album plays like a deliberately structured narrative that links the group’s hip-hop beginnings to its current position at the center of global pop culture.

The timing of the record is also significant. A rapidly evolving K-pop landscape has seen the rise of new acts, prompting quiet speculation among some skeptics about whether BTS could once again command the gravity they once held.

Listening to "ARIRANG," however, those doubts begin to dissipate. The album does not merely revisit familiar formulas, but instead, it demonstrates how the members’ individual artistic growth during their solo era and military hiatus has deepened the group’s collective voice.

The lead single, “SWIM,” comes across as a calculated move aimed at appealing to a broader global audience.

Built on a sleek mid-tempo pop framework and delivered entirely in English, the song appears strategically aligned with mainstream international radio. Its melodic progression and cinematic instruments create a sense of emotional uplift. The accompanying music video, which depicts the members as sailors navigating uncertain waters, amplifies the sense of perseverance and unity.

Yet the track also introduces a subtle conceptual tension.

For Korean listeners, the relative absence of explicitly Korean sonic or visual elements may feel noticeable given the symbolic weight of the album’s title. If "SWIM" gestures toward universality, it does so in a way that risks softening the cultural specificity suggested by "ARIRANG."

That tension is immediately reframed by the opening track, "Body to Body."

Driven by a refined hip-hop groove and Korean-language rap verses, the song integrates a smoothly reworked motif of the traditional "Arirang" melody that comes off as iconic rather than nostalgic. As an introduction, it functions almost as a thesis statement, reminding listeners that BTS’ journey began in its Korean background long before the group dominated global charts.

The early sequence continues to excavate those roots. "Hooligan" channels the urgency that defined the group’s mid-2010s output, while "Aliens," propelled by Suga’s assertive rap delivery over a minimalist groove, highlights the members’ contrasting vocal textures. Solo activities may have sharpened each member's individual skills, but their reunion creates a synergy that feels expansive rather than fragmented.

By the time the darker and more confrontational "FYA" arrives, the group’s hip-hop DNA is unmistakable.

Midway through the album, the interlude "No. 29" introduces an unexpected moment through a single resonant bell tone that appears to reference Korea’s National Treasure No. 29, the historic Emille Bell of the Silla era (57 BCE–935 CE). The decision to devote an entire composition to such a stark sonic gesture feels almost audacious, transforming a conceptual detail into one of the record’s most striking statements.

From there, the emotional arc pivots. "Merry Go Round" highlights the vocal line’s dynamic range against a vintage piano backdrop, while "NORMAL" leans toward contemporary pop influences with a sharper lyrical tone. "Like Animals," propelled by guitar-driven textures, evokes cinematic imagery of solitary nighttime movement, deepened by RM’s understated singing-rap passages.

On "they don’t know ’bout us," an analog-style intro creates an intimate atmosphere as the lyrics candidly address the pressures of life under public scrutiny.

The closing stretch moves toward more warmth. Beginning with "One More Night," the mood becomes lighter and more outward-looking. "Please" reads as a direct serenade to ARMY, acknowledging the fandom’s role in sustaining the group’s journey.

The final track, "Into the Sun," offers a slow-tempo farewell shaped by gratitude and quiet confidence, bringing the album’s narrative arc to a composed conclusion.

Taken as a whole, "ARIRANG" unfolds less like a collection of stand-alone singles and more like a carefully sequenced story. Its dramatic progression suggests a collective intent to connect the past with the future through sincerity rather than abstraction.

In an era when pop music often prizes stylistic ambiguity, BTS’ emotional directness may feel almost countercultural.

If that earnestness risks seeming unfashionable, it may also explain why BTS continues to occupy a space that few artists can convincingly claim as their own.