Hi! It’s Annie!
Well, we have more news about the BTS comeback! And there’s a lot to talk about. Not all of that is talking specifically about album information and what we know so far about what will actually be included. Though I’m going to talk about that too! Some of this will be about the reaction to this album and what’s ok to talk about and what kind of crosses a line. I know that sounds confusing right now, but I promise it’ll make more sense as I get further into the post! I was at the first weekend of the Las Vegas ‘Permission to Dance’ shows, so I wasn’t actually present when they made the big album reel reveal. But I was watching the livestream of the concert and I absolutely freaked out! I’m more than excited with every new piece of information, so I’m just going to get right into it!
What We Know:
Though this was announced originally as a full fledged comeback, it is a little up in the air how much we’ll really get in terms of comeback content. This is because this isn’t an all new album, like many were expecting. ‘PROOF’ has been confirmed to be an anthology album. Many people were pointing out all the hints that led up to the reveal of the name of the album and the fact that it will be an anthology album. Among this was Namjoon consistently using the word “proof” in his Vegas ending ments specifically and the reel of past music videos that led to the announcement of the album. If you aren’t quite sure what an anthology album is; no worries! Basically this means that this album is going to be a greatest hits album instead of having much in the way of new material. We do know that there will be some new material though. This album will have three new songs on it! There’s lots of debate as to whether these will all be full group songs or if they will split off into groups for these. Either way, I’m super excited! Any new song announcements will always excite me when it comes to any of the groups I stan! And new songs from BTS are obviously always wonderful! We don’t know much beyond these details though. There’s no word on what songs this anthology will include, if they will rerecord any songs, or what the three new songs will be like. But even so, there’s still enough news to get really excited about!
Update: I wrote this yesterday so here’s some brand new news that just got released today! We just got the information that ‘Yet To Come’ will be the main new single of the album and will get a music video to be released on the tenth of June. The full album track list is supposed to be released on the ninth of this month. So my sister and I’s birthday! Happy Birthday to us!
Disappointment:
Here’s where things get a little more touchy when it comes to the topic of this album. Many ARMY have expressed frustration or disappointment with the fact that this is an anthology album. In response, other members of ARMY are unsure as to if they should agree with the feelings of disappointment or if it is completely uncalled for to be disappointed about anything at all. Being completely honest, I was a little disappointed when they announced that this would be an anthology album. Now, if you’re disappointed and you feel that BTS is not doing enough and that they had plenty of time to work on a full album, you are completely in the wrong. Accusing BTS of having free time at all is pretty ridiculous. I think all of us should have a pretty good idea of how busy they all are right now, and pretty much always are for that matter. We know for a fact that the majority of them are working on solo projects, all of them are constantly involved in a billion other projects, and we know they are definitely working on things that haven’t even been announced yet. These men barely ever get a break! We’ve seen them work during episodes of ‘Bon Voyage’ or ‘In the SOOP’ which were technically supposed to be vacation times for them. We shouldn’t expect anything more from them than what they’re already giving, which is more than enough.
But if you’re disappointed because you were expecting a full album and not an anthology due to the way the announcements were made and phrased, then I’m completely with you! I think there would be a lot less disappointment if HYBE has been clear about this being an anthology album from the first official announcement. Instead they made this seem like a full comeback. I’m not sure an anthology album really feels like a fully fledged comeback album to me. Which is fine, we don’t need constant comeback albums and the comeback songs are more than enough! But if they had instead focused the shock and excitement based announcements on the new songs specifically rather than the album as a whole, I think ARMY would have known better how to place their excitement. I feel that my disappointment is all due to misplaced excitement because of the marketing they’ve been doing for the album. Announcing that this album was actually an anthology album after they made an official comeback announcement was a mistake in my opinion. They should have given us that information from the get go.
‘BE’:
There’s another reaction to the announcement that this would be an anthology that I really don’t agree with at all. I think that too many of us, including myself, forget sometimes that ‘BE’ was a full album and a a full comeback. Just because it happened in quarantine and the album had a different setup because it didn’t really feature solo songs, doesn’t mean it was any less than any of the other albums. In fact, I credit ‘BE’ with helping my mental health during a time when I sorely needed the help. This album means the absolute world to me. So I don’t think you’re being at all a supportive ARMY if you’re one of the ones out there saying that ‘BE’ didn’t count. The boys put their heart and soul into that album. Every song on that album is a breathtaking work of art. Not only that, but the boys were involved in almost every part of creating it from lyric writing, to vocals, to more behind the scenes work. ‘BE’ is quite possibly one of my favorite albums from them and I will not stand for anyone acting like it somehow means less. In fact, this feels to me like one of their most meaningful works so far.
Tour:
Right now the idea of a tour is pretty up in the air. We were supposed to have a final ruling on BTS’s military service last month, but obviously that didn’t happen. Really it isn’t a surprise considering that they have done nothing but push back the decision so far. I know a lot of people are wondering if a world tour would be ‘PTD’ again or at least similar to it. After all ‘PTD’ is an anthology concert. But from what the boys said in Vegas, it didn’t seem like they were going to do that specific tour again. They could do other songs in an anthology tour, such as ‘Danger’ or ‘Boy In Love’ or even any of their solo songs from ‘Map of the Soul: 7’ which they haven’t performed in front of an audience yet. Could you imagine watching Jimin perform ‘Filter’ live? I think I would just die right there! Personally, I feel like there’s a lot they could do here if they were to do another anthology based concert for their tour if it happens. I just don’t want it to be an exact rehash of ‘PTD’ with the new three songs added in. I hope they spring for a completely new setlist. But, let’s all be honest with ourselves, it’s BTS and we all will want to go and will be more than happy with whatever they decide to do!
I just wanted to touch on some of the news and reactions because, as usual, I always have a lot of opinions on BTS! I know those of us who were kind of disappointed will not be disappointed for long at all. But I will say, you can’t often control your first reaction to something. Especially if it involves something being completely different than what you expected. But different isn’t a bad thing at all! Sometimes it’s even better than what you originally expected! It just takes a little bit longer to get used to. I still absolutely cannot wait for this album to drop in June and see what exactly they do for this one specifically and what the new songs sound like! I’m sorry if I made some of this celebratory news come off as a bit of a bummer. Especially with the military talk. But hopefully we can give the boys what they want and focus on this comeback more than we worry about that stuff!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 