4. Right Place, Wrong Person by RM
BTS Leader RM's latest solo project conducts a cinematic narrative album on the way the cycle of grief weaves itself within
“If you want to change the past, all you have to do is try to record what happened in it.” - Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time, Natalie Hodges.1
The five stages of grief are a pretty well discussed concept in today’s world — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. One generally does not navigate through them sequentially, and can often go through different stages multiple times. My first reaction to this album, Right Place, Wrong Person, was that we are going through these cycles with the narrator, RM.
We feel every stage, every line, within the scope of these stages. The added music videos provide cinema, color, depth, and texture that lead you further on a journey through grief and the search for personhood. The various levels of his inner mind, the different culturally cinematic approaches to the videos (British, Japanese, Korean), the wide range of music genres, all discordant yet somehow coming together into something that still sonically makes sense.
The fact that the music videos were not released sequentially furthers the narrative - pre release single Come Back to Me being the most chill, indie song on the album, but also the final, “post-credit” track also serves to be a thesis statement. That despite the growth and release of emotions, we end up back at the end of this loop. That the conclusion, at the end of all processing, the person at the receiving end of the message is still the narrator’s “pain” and “divine.”
Directed by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin, the music video takes us through different rooms in a home, and seemingly eras of RM. There’s an almost “Everything Everywhere All At Once” feel to the concept. I won’t spoil the conclusion, and suggest you watch it for yourself :)
Upon first listen (and many more), the first three songs seamlessly blend together as if they are one. The repetition of lyrics in the opening track into the anger driven Nuts, to the full force of an impassioned narrator in Out of Love - the listener goes on a ride through the narrator’s flow and emotions. Dissecting the songs, Nuts is, in and of itself, its own ride through grief. The first verse:
I go nuts 괴물이 된 꼴이
You look like your guts
그저 껍데기뿐인 trust
Frеaky you, freakin' me
Wishin' you in a grief
사랑은 망해 반드시 love is for the freaks2
There’s a brief melodic refrain, before the bitter narrator returns to end the song with:
너 간 뒤로 비로소 난 살아 있어
매일 밤이면 과거의 나에게 보내는 유서를 써
위스키 한 잔이면 털어질 모든 기억
믿지도 않는 신께 빌어
네가 내 전부던 20대에서 벗어날 수 있도록
행복하길 바랄게, 진심이야 안 믿겠지만
참 질겼던 관계 there's a stigma on my chest
It's called you 함께였던 것조차 믿기질 않는
It was a flu, and we could see the karma comin' through
The monster hasn't been me
I beg you, oh, baby, please
Forever, ever, ever wish you a true happiness, damn3
The oscillation between grief, anger, happiness, and even a sense of gratitude, all come together to lay out the thought process through the stages. All of it, together, at once, existing in one singular thought process.
The music video simplistically portrays the narrator in his studio, going through a form of freestyle performance of the song, seemingly ending on his knees (begging please) before getting up to end on a chair with his hand over his face and just his eye showing, as if to ask - Are you really seeing this? Are you really seeing me?
The album slightly shifts, even accelerates, with Domodachi musically continuing to build up from the previous songs, but lyrically taking us on a different course.
Lyrically, the narrator talks about throwing his problems aside and dancing with his friends, being in his social circle with those who will lift him up rather than tear him down. We momentarily retreat from anger, though there are a couple refrains imbued with the bitter voice from the previous songs.4
The song begins with a saxophone and drum, slowly adding in instruments under the rap melody. The build up gives a dance vibe, but when the base comes in the song feels almost Rockabilly, or a striped down White Stripes-esque beat. The chorus (sung by Kim Hanjoo of K-indie bad Silica Gel) feels almost trance like, audibly hypnotizing the listener to join in and become one with the feeling of the song. The instrumentals go in and out through the chorus and under every verse until featuring rapper Little Simz starts, and every instrument starts the acceleration again.
The first time I heard this song, all I could do was smile and laugh. It’s rare to hear a song for the first time and fully succumb to everything it’s presenting. I almost got goosebumps with how well every part went in and out, weaving itself into an auditory tapestry of emotion and fire.
Domodachi segues into ?.Interlude, a legitimate interlude in the middle of our journey. Featuring jazz prodigies DOMi & JD BECK, this track feels as though the narrator himself needed a break from telling his story. A resigned RM raps over the jazz break:
Would it been better if I didn't know you
'Cause every feeling I did feel is so true
I just hope you remember me
The best grave in your cemetery
You know you got the best of me
The song is one of two (the other being Heaven) that gives us a break from the anger and self reflection, seemingly like the middle journey between stages of grief. They both offer a sense of dejection, a narrator tired of trying, ostensibly ready to give into the depression and anger.
But, we transition to Groin, which is my other favorite track on the album. The track brings us back to the anger, albeit in a more frank and almost upbeat way.
It is interesting that the lyrics seem to be more of the self - establish RM as himself. He said in a discussion video of the album with BTS member Jimin that over the course of the band’s history, he has always had to be the face and voice of the group, being the one who spoke English fluently and had to bridge the gap between them and the West through their meteoric rise.5 However, he always held back his negative feelings, suppressing them in favor of saving face. Groin is his ode to the haters, while also establishing his own self.
세상엔 재수 없는 새끼가 많아
어쩌라고 뭐 가던 길이나 가라
세상엔 알 수 없는 새끼가 많아
부딪칠 것 같으면 난 더 세게 밟아
I just fuck it up (Fuck it up, bitch)
Every time you know I fuck it up (Fuck it up, you dick)
The opening refrain always makes me laugh, especially because it is truly relatable to everyone (“There’s lots of annoying bastards in this world/ What do you want me to do? Just walk in your own lane/ There’s lots of bastards you can’t understand in this world/If you’re going to crash just accelerate hard”).6 There is anger in the way the verses are constructed but in a very much “I will still do what I want” kind of way.
It always gives me a pep in my step on my evening walks, admittedly. I love the beat and production, and the way the rap melody fills in the empty space between the underlying instrumental.
Lead single, LOST!, is a fun upbeat track that brings together the more indie pop themes of the album into a track about the emotional ups and downs of love, loss, and ultimately one’s own way.
I'm goddamn lost (goddamn lost)
I never been to club before, I hit the club (I hit the club)
I never felt so free before, you're goddamn ghost (you're goddamn ghost)
I never felt so fine before, I hit the cloud
I got temptation, I got temptation
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Every morning, every night, I always feelin' lifeless
And in the morning I feel love, I hug it in excitement
Every morning, every night, I always feelin' sickness
When I feel lonely as fuck, I still got lifeless
I'll never love when I'm low, it'd gonna lightless, uh
The name tag at the beginning of the video says “Inside Namjoon’s Brain:” it’s a fun nod to the thesis of the album - ultimately, a look into the mazes and intricacies of RM’s mind and feelings.
Around the World in a Day featuring Moses Sumney is such an interesting climax to the story. Sumney and RM sing and rap almost over each other, going back and forth with the instrumental swell, building up to RM’s rap verse that gives off a sense of absolution. Our narrator is still sort of lost - “If it's right, if it's wrong, then I'll tell you/Only time will sort it out/Oh, now what's wrong?/Is it right? Is it wrong? I can tell you.” But there’s a broader sense of finality. That maybe this journey will have an end, and regardless of outcome, it may just be ok.
ㅠㅠ (Credit Roll) is exactly what the title says — a credit roll ending (ㅠㅠ is the Korean testing symbol for crying, with a cute connotation). It is a simple song that repeats:
When the credits roll do you hang tight?
Do you stay inside or go off to life?
I'm so grateful for everyone's time
Hope you all had such wonderful night
The track then cycles into Come Back to Me, where we began our journey with RM on this cinematic ride through his grief and loss of self.
Loss of self, and grief over losing, but ultimately finding yourself, is where I landed on what this album is about. There’s much debate about who this album is about, and what the lyrics could mean. RM alluded to this album and its topic for what seemed like years. After his last album Indigo released in December 2022, there was a sense that he would enlist in the Korean military to complete his compulsory service. But he immediately through himself into a song camp for this album in February 2023, and over the course of the year worked on the various pieces of it. It was obvious something big had impacted his life in a negative way, and he briefly discusses the emotional hardship he endured that he wanted to pour into this album with bandmate Jimin7 (it is hard to link other source material for this as it would just be countless live streams and instagram posts. But the interwoven lyrics about himself and being true to who he is as a person have me wondering if this album is more than just about heartbreak or one singular person. Some of these themes were discussed on Indigo, but in a more superficial way with more digestible styles of music to accompany the lyrics.
This album is truly a release - a release of everything inside of him, waiting for the world to really take a look at what he has wanted to show them he is.
If I could ask RM one question about this album, it would be “What did it feel like to get out of your head?” Long time fans will know - in his lengthy video streams explaining the album making process he conducts within a month of releasing something, it takes a lot for him to let go. Every time he explains himself as releasing something, an inner feeling, it simultaneously feels like a release with resistance. A release with limits. The full writing and production always in his hand. Solo albums are generally written and produced himself, and he always shares the painstaking process he undertakes to fit everything into place perfectly. But this time, he released himself to a song camp process with notable names within the K-indie world.
More than working with a new musical team, he also fully side stepped the usual Kpop artist path of working within the confines of your company of employment’s staff and creative process, and teamed with the creative team that produces Balming Tiger, a musical collective that prides itself on creating genre-less music and art. Production and writing credits are full of big hitters — Oh Hyuk of acclaimed indie band HYUKOH, Kim Hanjoo of Silica Gel, and Balming Tiger’s San Yawn and JNKYRD. Every music video was also carefully thought out, with different directors and approaches to the artist.
It is a testament to his vision of himself, but also to the collective that came together to make this album happen. And when you’re someone who works almost entirely for yourself, it can be painstaking to actually put yourself aside and work collectively with other creatives to see a project come to fruition.
I also enjoyed that album collaborators Kuo of Sunset Rollercoaster (who contributed to the guitar on the song) and Kim Hanjoo of Silica Gel, made videos of their own interpretations of songs on the album, and wanted to highlight them as well.
There was so much I want to say about this album, but so few words that come to mind when I sit down to type this (though, I think this has been my longest post to date so were there actually few words?). In fangirl speak, my mind really just yells “THIS ALBUM IS FOR ME” - melding together the production and musicianship of some of my favorite Korean indie artists with the lyricism and mind of BTS’ RM.
On another paradigm, I am once again taken aback by the way RM continues to put out ALBUMS. While there are singles and music videos for this project, none of them resonate as a stand alone track. Especially where viral songs take over charts today, it’s striking how this album is set out to exist as the whole of its parts, not the singular slices of the pie. So few album artists exist these days, and I relish every moment I can spend listening to those I gravitate towards.
“…performing requires humility: a willingness to risk being humiliated or misunderstood, and to lay yourself bare so you can try to say what you mean (and what you think the composer meant).”8
In a note to fans on the day of BTS 11th anniversary, RM wrote a post in the fan app Weverse with some thoughts on the album, stating “This is just an album in which I struggled to be honest with myself. I hope you read it over and over again for a long time.”9
Thanks for tuning in.
Prelude, pg. 13.
I go mad, the state of <you> who has become a monster
You look like your guts
trust that is only just a shell
Freaky you, freaking me, wishing you in a grief
love fails no matter what, love is for the freaks - translation available at btsinthemoment
after you left, only then i’m alive
Every night, I write a will that I send to my past self
all the memories that will be brushed off with just a glass of whiskey, I pray to the god that I don’t even believe in
so that I can escape my 20s when you were my everything
I'll sincerely wish for your happiness, I mean it, even though you won't believe it
a relationship that was so tenacious, there's a stigma on my chest
It's called you, it's hard to believe that we were ever together
It was a flu, and we could see the karma coming through
The monster hasn't been me, I beg you, oh, baby, please
Forever, ever, ever wish you true happiness, damn, translations available at: btsinthemoment and genius
Muhfuckas want a bigger growl, muhfuckas want to take control
All my friends cryin' in a row, you won't get it, free soul, you betta come up with it
See FN 5.
Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time, Natalie Hodges, pg. 40, Untrainment.
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/rm-reflects-military-service-jin-release-1235711629/amp/
omg i clicked on this immediately when i saw it in my inbox, i used to love BTS when i was younger!