Welcome back to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, followers, and newbies. This week we prepare for BTS's RM's new solo project. As always, if you haven't already, feel free to subscribe Head over to my complimentary newsletter to get Fan Chant delivered straight to your inbox every week!
When RM released his solo album, Indigo, in December 2022, there was a lot to process: the stellar collaborations with the likes of Erykah Badu, Anderson .Paak and Tablo; the genre-fluid nature of the project, which ranges from light pop to reflective ballads; and the depth of the composer's lyricism, always inclined towards poetry. For me, one of the biggest takeaways was how much RM there is in BTS: his sound, perspective, and clarity tend to seep into many aspects of his work as a group, and his solo album encapsulates that.
Indigo It remains one of my favorite albums of the last five years. I love it a lot and it hasn't lost any of its replay value for me since its release in 2022. (If you read my admittedly somewhat exciting review upon its release, you probably won't be surprised to hear this.) are back in a RM release week, with his second solo album Right place, wrong person It is scheduled to arrive this Friday, May 24.
This next LP will surely be quite far from Indigo – everything teased, including collaborators and visuals, is a far cry from the earthy, diary-like atmosphere of their first full-length album. To be fair, Indigo was also markedly different from RM's two EPs, RM and infectious mononucleosis.with the former characterized by bold and frustrated rap lines, and the latter returning to atmospheric, melancholic and introspective territory.
For Right place, wrong person, RM worked closely with some of the members of the Seoul-based Balming Tiger art collective, with whom he previously collaborated on the incredibly fun “SEXY NUKIM.” For anyone who hasn't already, Balming Tiger's 2023 debut might be worth a listen. January never diesto help calibrate expectations of Right place, wrong person later this week. Those people love to get weird.
Balming Tiger were our CoSign artists last October, and one of the things I remember most about the interview is how many faces appeared on the Zoom call. It wasn't until more than a dozen frames of overlapping conversations appeared on screen that creative director and RM collaborator San Yawn gave me the green light to begin, explaining, “We have a big family.”
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