I started listening to BTS albums from the beginning of their musical journey and this series will feature my thoughts on each of those albums. There are a lot of albums but there are also a lot of solo work that I’m interested in covering here on the blog so I decided to just name this feature, The BTS Listen because I’m an organization nerd and things need to be well organized for me or I get itchy.

This week, I’ll be featuring the BE Album. The BE album is the pandemic album that BTS worked on to gift Army with something that will help us cope with being stuck indoors throughout the pandemic. Aren’t they so good to us? This album is a short but packed album that tops off at 28 minutes on the listening scale.

BE

Release Date: November 20, 2020
Track List: Life Goes On, Fly to My Room, Blue & Grey, Skit, Telepathy, Dis-ease, Stay, Dynamite
Favorite Song: Life Goes On, Telepathy
Favorite Line: People say the world has changed, Thankfully between you and me, it’s still the same.

BTS is returning with their new album BE to unfold another chapter of 2020.

As a sense of helplessness looms in every corner of the world, BTS opens themselves up to express their mixed feelings about this situation—fear and anxiety mingled with the determination to overcome all this. The album consists of a total of eight tracks including the No.1 summer hit “Dynamite” and lead single “Life Goes On”. The latter speaks on behalf of everyone stuck in the new normality brought on by COVID-19: one day, the world stopped without any warning, streets erased of footsteps and the way out is nowhere near in sight. BTS echoes in a low voice the comforting message that in the face of unexpected turns “Life Goes On” and extends their hands towards the future.

The BE album dropped on November 20, 2020 and it was my first official BTS comeback. I’m not lying when I tell you guys that I was super excited for the release day. I woke up extra early to run to Target and get my album. Haha, funny story about the release day. I work from home so my days tend to blend together but I was so ready for November 20th to get here. It’s a week after my birthday and it was going to be a belated birthday gift to myself. So the day gets here and I’m up early as hell because I needed to go and get it before I started work. I got dressed, brushed my hair, put on some presentable clothes, and drove all the way to Target. I run inside, straight to the electronics section only to discover NO BE albums out on display. I was so mad so I’m like, okay it’s early so maybe they just haven’t put them out yet. I stop a worker and ask about any new BTS albums and she had no idea what I was talking about so I pull it up on my phone and realize that…it’s November 19th and not the 20th so I was too early and I had nobody to be mad at but myself so since the albums weren’t on sale yet, I bought some damn donuts and took my dumbass home. LOL. Moral of the story? Check your calendar before you have an attitude.

Anyway, let’s get on with the reason for this post. I can’t believe we’re already here. The latest album from BTS. I feel like I started this journey so long ago and it feels that way because there were a lot of albums to go through. Man, it’s been a blast for me. BTS fans have been super spoiled for the last seven years and they signed on for 7 more years? Yippy skippy!

This album kicks off with a slow ballad called Life Goes On. This is a group song and the other title track off the album. I have two favorite songs on this album and this is one of them. This song is such a feel good song that speaks on what the boys are feeling and going through during the pandemic. They’re just as sad as us but if we just hold on a little longer, life will go and we’ll be able to go outside again. We’ll be together again. I have so much love for this song and I don’t even care that I’ve heard this song a million times. I still love it dammit!

Fly to My Room is next up and it’s another slower song that features Jimin and V on vocals along with J Hope and Suga bringing the rap line goodness. This song speaks on exactly what we’ve been going through this last year. A year was stolen from us and being stuck in our rooms so we might as well make our rooms, our spaces into the places we love most in the world. This song could so be the world’s anthem for the last year. I love it.

Next up is Blue & Grey. This is the song that V wrote when he was depressed so it’s a slow ballad that I’m not going to lie, I cried the first time that I heard it. I read the lyrics along with listening to it and man, that man was hurting and I’m glad that I read what he said about writing this song. He explained that when he was having a bad time, he started writing this song and it helped him get his feelings out into the world and after he was done, the depression seemed to dissipate and he was able to let go of all of those feelings and move on. He’s a lot happier now and I’m so glad for him. Knowing the backstory of this song makes me love it so much more and though it’s a very sad song, there’s a wistful hopefulness to it that makes me happy.

It’s been a while since I’ve heard a skit with the boys just talking to each other but there’s one in this album and if you don’t speak Korean, I highly recommend checking this video out cause they’ve got you covered.

Now, it’s Telepathy time. This is my absolute favorite song from the whole album. It’s such a fun, upbeat song with a message of hope that BTS and Army will be reunited again and I’m so here for it. Suga wrote this song in thirty minutes and if that ain’t impressive, I don’t know what is. Do I love this song? Hella.

Dis-ease is the next song and it’s a J-Hope song that everyone is part of. J-Hope said that he got the idea to write this song by wanting to talk about sickness. He wanted to talk about his inability to rest properly during the pandemic because he was constantly working on things and that’s his dis-ease. We all have our own shit that we’re working through, a dis-ease, if you will and he packed those thoughts into this song and what we got was an up-beat song with a hopeful message that though you have a love-hate relationship with something, you can overcome it. This is a great song, with an old school vibe that I dug.

The next song, Stay, is a unit song that features Jungkook, Jin, and RM. It’s another upbeat song with what sounds like EDR influences. Jungkook spoke about this song at the BE global press conference and said that this song is about how even though we’re all far a part now, we still always stay together and if that ain’t the truth, I don’t know what is. It’s another fun song that lifts spirits and keeps us all together through the power of music. I’m all about it.

The last song on the album is a song that everyone in the world is familiar with. It’s the first song that BTS has ever released that is ALL IN ENGLISH. It got nominated for a Grammy and though the boys didn’t win, they still lit up the Grammy’s like dynamite (and so did Army, haha). Dynamite was the first song that released while I was already a BTS fan so I love it. Jimin said that this song is a song that he thought would lift Army’s spirit and give them something to be happy about and he’s right. I didn’t know that I needed 30 versions of this song but I’ll take them all.

Overall, this was the album we all needed in this crazy, wacked out time that we’re living in. BTS made this for Army to help us through the pandemic and we are so damn fortunate to have a group that loves us enough to do something like this. This album is too short but I don’t even care because it’s still packed with goodness that is still making me super happy, four months later. The physical album is a thing of beauty and I’m so glad that I got it. Photocards, postcards, great music, and posters of our favorite 7? Yes, please!! So good!

Favorite Performance

This is the performance I needed during this damn pandemic. I needed this whole album, to be honest, and I’m grateful that BTS gave us something to get us through. This song, in particular, is one of my absolute favorite songs on the album and I was so damn happy when the song started up on their MTV Unplugged show. This performance showcases a lot of what I love about watching these guys perform. You can see how much they love to perform for us. They’re so happy and it shows! I just love this performance to pieces.

Final Thoughts

LOVED IT