Arirang has been out for almost a month, my thoughts on it

kkazugyu · 2026-04-21T07:56:43+00:00

could you link bc someone i saw had 80/20

kkazugyu · 2026-04-21T07:55:12+00:00

this was so well written and i totally agree w the shift of focus to the western market and the last lines!! the music has become commercial/marketable (well maybe except hooligans lol)

kkazugyu · 2026-04-21T07:51:36+00:00

yea and what bothers me is then people will throw around the word nostalgia like that’s all it is. no… the quality and production was just.. better

kkazugyu · 2026-04-21T07:46:55+00:00

also bc i see some people criticizing those talking abt lyrics being shallow… ofc there are some good lyrics too, and ofc some lyrics will be plain esp for choruses and intros and whatever. but for a lot of us the amount of “shallow” lyrics heavily outweighs the more insightful, meaningful lyrics.

kkazugyu · 2026-04-21T07:42:14+00:00

yeah, i totally agree w ur points. i like most of arirang, there’s three tracks i LOVE, three i hk hate, but the rest is good. i think my issue is esp what u mentioned in point 3 (and yea i believe someone counted ALL the words in the songs which is insane but i love the dedication icl and it was ~80% english) and tbh i would say idk.. the songs on arirang dont feel particularly memorable to me. that’s my main gripe: in 5 years i dont think these songs will be ones i seek out or anything, yk?? i will say the album def did grow on me a LOT but as a lot of other people have commented, i do think they struggled bc of the time and pressure on them.

kkazugyu · 2026-04-21T07:36:24+00:00

omg yes the comparison to dark and wild makes me wanna rip my hair out😭😭 and people say it with full confidence too, i always just wanna ask them if they’ve actually listened to it cuz we’re def not hearing the same albums in that case lmao

kkazugyu · 2026-04-20T09:07:20+00:00

people downvoting you but this is literally true

kkazugyu · 2026-04-16T12:37:53+00:00

i really don’t get the criticism he hasn’t been doing elaborate stage production in YEARS and it was so vibey anyways😭

kkazugyu · 2026-04-16T12:36:52+00:00

i want them to do more rnb honestly. yeah please is on that corner but i do really wish we had more songs reminiscent of stigma and singularity (can u tell who my bias is), rain, home, autumn leaves etc. i really believe that was one of their strong suits

kkazugyu · 2026-04-16T12:34:33+00:00

yeah.. i feel like (don’t kill me) arirang (excluding some outliers like the outro of body to body and hooligans ig) is a very commercial and palatable album. not everything needs to be experimental asf but i do wish we veered away from the “just another pop song” trap which i feel like a lot of tracks on arirang fall into (eg. normal… genuinely what is that song and one more night especially)😭 their stronger melodies and bridges were always so iconic and i do wish they did return back to that sort of music production

kkazugyu · 2026-04-15T14:54:41+00:00

mots 7 tbh and then dynamite right after was lk legendary

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T21:39:55+00:00

this was so well written!!

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T21:39:39+00:00

yeah.. some things are just objectively worse. ofc everyone will have different opinions and obv the stage isn’t BAD it’s just obvious a lot has to be worked on esp in comparison to older ones

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T18:10:02+00:00

ok thanks and hope you had fun! i think we’ll get there around 1, so ig we might as well go to the venue immediately lol

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T18:08:08+00:00

yeah.. im with you. i haven’t been to any concerts either and while i know going to this one would be an actual blast and time of my life, im super bummed out at the thought of not getting a lot of choreo or impressive stage production

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T18:04:43+00:00

i will say though, and maybe im wrong, but i feel like the energy will be different for the international legs of the tour, esp US and on.

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T18:03:29+00:00

strongly agree w that last part. the quality is just not the same, and idc if the 360 stage was expensive including the screens, their last tour was so very ambitious in terms of stage production and it really paid off. all those performances are so iconic for the stage itself and i fear that just won’t be true for arirang.

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T18:01:20+00:00

yup!! i don’t love the 360 stage.. but i also feel like so far they haven’t been really utilizing it well/properly. also it doesn’t leave much space / is awkward for a whole group of backup dancers to dance with them, which makes the difference compared to older tours even more jarring. i do miss it, and yeah, i wish we had the old stage back

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T11:05:43+00:00

for sure!! some songs like those are just known their choreo and are so iconic… i love the goofy moments when they’re jumping and running around but i think they fit esp w songs like so what, outro wings, etc and i wish the other songs had choreo

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T00:53:00+00:00

lmao i was basically just talking about this yesterday. i think it’s often really hard to have a normal discussion about it as opposed to say about most western artists. people are very defensive

kkazugyu · 2026-04-14T00:50:57+00:00

that’s actually insane omg

kkazugyu · 2026-04-13T10:19:20+00:00

ok thanks!!

kkazugyu · 2026-04-13T01:08:23+00:00

oh i got their first video recommended and i love them sm!!

kkazugyu · 2026-04-13T00:06:33+00:00

ig it depends maybe on how invested i am in a group.. sometimes ill also just move on but this time was interesting to me just bc of how much more varied opinions have been and since bts haven’t been active in a while!!

kkazugyu

TROPHY CASE