Grab your suit, or your Speedos. And get ready for a swim.
Unless if you’ve been living in a cave, covered by a massive rock, the pop music community is locked-in for return of BTS, and their new album ARIRANG.
The 14-track collection dropped at midnight, featuring production from Diplo, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Mike WiLL Made-It and Ryan Tedder.
ARIRANG is no ordinary recording. It marks the first release in six years, lava hot-run for the Bangtan Boys that briefly cooled when its members enlist in the South Korean military to fulfill mandatory service requirements.
To celebrate the release of ARIRANG, Hybe Labels drops the official music video for album cut “Swim.” Directed by Tanu Muiño and starring Lili Reinhart, it’s a cinematic experience, a high-seas drama that sees RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook work the ropes and navigate a sailing ship. It’s not any boat. Of course, the lads are cruising on the good ship ARIRANG. Also that year, BTS climbed the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 with smashes “Life Goes On” and “Dynamite,” after which the group would top the chart again with “Butter,” “Permission to Dance” and “My Universe” with Coldplay.
The ARIRANG ship will come in to dock on Saturday, March 21 when BTS performs to a free concert at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, South Korea, with an expected 260,000 fans watching on. BTS hasn’t performed as a group since October 2022, when the septet performed in Busan as part of South Korea’s bid to host the World Expo in 2023. Shortly afterward, their staggered enlistments into the military began, while solo projects got underway.
Watch “SWIM” below.
