Any Single is a Good Single, Especially the Unofficial Ones
BTS is a group K-Pop fans are all familiar with, ARMY or not. Over the past couple of months, they have been all over the world on tour and performing on popular TV shows like Good Morning America. BTS also had a very interesting project up their sleeve, which was revealed very recently: their new mobile game, BTS World.
“Dream Glow”: An EDM Masterpiece
The powerful musical septet has a set OST for the game, which has been released in parts without any warning from BigHit Entertainment, nor with any type of advertisement except from the game’s official website. The first track released was the song “Dream Glow,” which is sung by Jin, Jimin, Junkook, and Englishwoman Charlotte Emma Aitchison, more widely known as Charli XCX. The song was released on June 7, 2019 and entered Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart at Number 1, selling 15,000 downloads.
The track has a silky feel to it and is full of wistfulness. With the entire vocal unit (except for V) singing together with Charli’s powerful voice, the song encompasses the essence of human emotion and strength. A seemingly common musical favorite in K-Pop nowadays, EDM is very prevalent throughout the piece, which also reminded us of their previous collaboration, “Waste It On Me,” with Steve Aoki.
“A Brand New Day”: A Brand New Musical Mix-Up
On June 14, a mere seven days after “Dream Glow” was released, “A Brand New Day” dropped as the second track of the game’s OST. The song includes J-Hope and V, an uncommon combination when it comes to the traditional grouping of BTS’s vocals. However, the result was astoundingly pleasing to the ears as the harmonious vocals gave off a silky vibe with a hip-hop infusion. Joining them on this piece was Zara Larsson, a renowned Swedish singer.
The piece makes use of a Korean traditional bamboo flute called a daegeum, combined with modern hip-hop and pop. The song is substantially different from “Dream Glow” in the sense that the styles are contradictory. The EDM/pop vibe that we receive from “Dream Glow” is nowhere prevalent in “A Brand New Day.” However, similarities can be found in the sense that both songs do not drift very far from peace and serenity. Even though “A Brand New Day” has a much tougher beat than “Dream Glow,” the use of the daegeum helps cushion the complex beat and adds a beautiful and unique sound.
“All Night”: A Mature Topic, But What Can We Expect?
On June 21 BTS dropped their newest hit from their mobile app Dream World featuring RM and Suga, and American artist Jarad Higgins (Juice WRLD). The piece is everything that we could expect from the BTS rap line, full of rhythm, dynamics, and beautiful lyrics.
The piece is your typical standard hip-hop/rap song, however, the lyrics are what is more enrapturing. Filled with passionate words from all three of the singers, it can be said that the song encompasses the power and emotion from the previous two releases, and compresses them into one beautiful burst of poetry. Another interesting fact about the song was the fact that there was a heavy mix of English and Korean in this song. Now, though the previous songs did have a mix of both of the languages, this song blended the two amazingly. Not only because of RM’s superb English pronunciation, but also because the flow between the two while rapping, was most unexpected and satisfying. One can only suspect what the next tracks will entail in terms of BTS members and collaborations. Time will only tell as we prepare for the app’s release on June 25.