The Singles Jukebox

And so does the Jukebox. This concludes our regular coverage for the year. Amnesty Week(s) begins tomorrow!

[Video][Website]
[5.18]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Something I feel deeply in my bones: no one is allowed to shit on Korean ballads unless they’re Korean. It’s a silly and essentialist way of thinking akin to who I believe can speak ill of my family, but sometimes in my mind I’m like… could a foreigner possibly be qualified to comment on the beauty of such garish sentimentality? And really, I have so many qualms with this song: it’s so unfocused compared to “Spring Day,” the handclaps are obnoxious, the vocals aren’t optimally mixed, the whole thing sounds like leftover juk, but it’s the only time I’ve felt something from a BTS single in what feels like years. I’m just looking for a reason to love them, and this feels like a prodigal son moment. An aspect of that story worth noting: the father ran to his child upon seeing him. I know I’m just happy to see BTS doing something that isn’t “Dynamite.”
[6]

Will Adams: It’s comforting to know there is life after “Dynamite,” even if it sounds like mid-’00s acoustica mush.
[4]

John Seroff: I’m not sure I remember the last time my song was so thoroughly pre-chewed for me.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: Hey, it’s much better than Noah and the Whale.
[5]

Crystal Leww: BTS seem to be breaking into the Western market with a strategy centered around making music that basically sounds good soundtracking media. This isn’t always bad. Sometimes it’s a corny trainwreck. “Life Goes On” feels like it’s suited for the montage at the beginning of a sequel film where the young adult characters we met in the first movie are going off to college, playing under photo snapshots of high school memories. Whether or not you’re invested in whether or not the friendships survive depends on whether or not you liked them to begin with. Similarly, whether or not “Life Goes On” works for you probably depends on whether or not you were a BTS fan to begin with. For the casual listener, it’s going to sound like a bunch of goop. 
[4]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: Maybe this is just the time of year that I’m writing this, but I feel like I’m in the gym at St. Mary’s trying to figure out where to put my hand during a slow dance on the last Friday before Christmas break. This is BTS, so obviously the production is impeccable, with what sounds like a noise-gated acoustic guitar opening the affair. I would’ve like to hear it mixed higher when it came back, as it sounded more interesting to me than the standard picked line that accompanied the verses, but overall, this is an enjoyable slice of late 2000s pop with some breathy harmonies to bring it to the present. Now, is your mom picking us up after the dance, or should I use your Nokia to call my dad?
[7]

Alfred Soto: In the harmonies and thwack-beat, I hear N Sync’s “This I Promise You” but with a rap interlude: a pretty nothing designed to diversify their portfolio. 
[4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The chopped up acoustic guitar chords recall nothing more than the grand sentimentality of Lil Wayne’s “How To Love,” but schmaltz fits these guys better than it did Wayne. It’s easy to joke on BTS for their combination of ponderous philosophical conceits and overly-ornamented pop, but here they manage to balance the two without simplifying the material down to “Dynamite” levels. It’s still a bit of a slog — capturing the stasis of sheltering in place should not require imitating its form — but it’s the kind of song that makes you see what the big deal is with these guys anyways.
[6]

Nortey Dowuona: A soft, pressed guitar is flattened over popping percussion and almost invisible drums and bouncing bass as the seven gently float, then spill seaglass-smooth raps in a near telepathic way, then disappear under heavy piano chords and whips synths, then reappear, smiling so brightly and excitedly you feel like a sunbeam.
[7]

Andrew Karpan: Soft like a lovely plush pillow, the second number one hit from BTS is less the American “funk and soul” exercise that “Dynamite” was and is gentle, acoustic and constructed to be a deliberate balm for the stressed out, unironic about its self-serious title. Life does, indeed go on, a sentiment that delivered smash hits to various former members of the Beatles, and so it’s fitting that it does for members of this boy band too. Pleasant, if a little too pleasant, the track hits its high note when the vocal hackeysack falls on Suga and he produces a sound that Genius does a great injustice by only transcribing as “mh-hm-hm-hm.” But it’s a vocal effect so gorgeous and pure-hearted that I could listen to it for hours.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: The world’s biggest group drop a somewhat sad (melancholy, at least) record about the 2020 we’ve all had, because if nothing else, they seem to understand what their fans want. The melody is sweet, the singing the same, and while it doesn’t exactly stick with me, it’s pleasant enough.
[6]

Jackie Powell: This is a song that I imagine myself listening to post-pandemic when we can actually lay on the grass and stare up at the clouds together with all the people we hold close. (There will be a day when we can hug people again.) This is a song that I imagine is played as the credits of a coming-of-age movie are about to roll. You know, that scene where the resolution has just come to a close. I expected “Dynamite” to have been BTS’ first Billboard Hot 100 number one, but there’s more significance in their first number one coming off a track that has a little bit more emotion and vulnerability. “Life Goes On” has an acoustic sound and emotional grounding similar to *NSYNC’s most known ballad “This I Promise You.” Contrary to what Chris Molanphy wrote, on this track, BTS appears more reminiscent of *NSYNC than the Beatles. And that’s okay. The beauty of BTS is they’ve taken bits and pieces from sounds of the most iconic boy bands. But as a pandemic song, BTS communicates reality amid its paradoxical dream sequence of a melody, which was something Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande failed to do on “Stuck With U.”
[6]

Anna Katrina Lockwood: Seems like this year’s COVID confinement has affected the young men of BTS in much the same way as it has myself — with resignation over personal time sacrificed while universal time speeds ahead. “Life Goes On” is primarily built of a slight, tender guitar looped alongside at least four individual earworm melodies. The low-key vibe lends itself to more reserved vocal deliveries which suits the vocal line well, Jungkook in particular turning in a lovely first verse. I have some fondness for this small, comforting song, it’s got a real candor to it that I’ve missed in BTS’s recent singles. At the same time, after all this is over, I can’t imagine returning to this track all that often — I’ll probably just put on “Save Me” instead. 
[6]

Alex Clifton: “Life Goes On” is the cousin of “Spring Day,” BTS’s best song. “Spring Day” is a comforting song about how everything sucks right now but someday you’ll be back with your friends, spending time together once the metaphorical winter in your soul ends. “Life Goes On” has ended up interpreting this message a bit more literally through the lens of the pandemic, but takes the same chill-hop approach. It’s not exactly new ground for BTS, but it is by far their strongest single this year. “Dynamite” has grown on me over time but it still felt like a weird heel-turn to hear the boys do a song that none of them had written, and in English no less. “Life Goes On” is far more in their wheelhouse, composed with parts that complement each member’s strengths rather than jamming each into a part that doesn’t suit them. It’s the equivalent of being wrapped in a blanket while watching snow fall, soothing and charming. While I have vacillated between high-energy pop and contemplative ballads to get through quarantine (and at this stage I think it is easier to make a more somber song than something fun), I’m in a quieter mood as winter approaches and 2020 ends, and “Life Goes On” is a good song to get me through these shorter days. 
[7]

Ady Thapliyal: The silver lining to the news that BTS received a de facto military deferral from the Korean Government to prolong their careers is that with the extra time they might finally take a break. A good long break, not the five weeks they took off last year — their only vacation since their debut. Because “Life Goes On” is what happens when you don’t let the creative batteries recharge. Back in the Love Yourself trilogy days, I wrote about the sloppy aesthetic of a BTS song — their major contribution to K-pop — which deliberately rejected the slick hook-filled style of Super Junior and SHINee to connote authenticity. But in this post-Map of the Soul era, I’m not sure that claim holds water anymore: “Dynamite” sounded like it was left on the cutting room floor from SNSD’s disco revival album, and now “Life Goes On” gives us TV drama soft rock. They’re not their usual selves; they sound tired, and their sound is tired. There’s still some BTS weirdness with the inexplicable Atlanta trap style tongue clicks, but it’s only a little pepper on top of the world’s blandest potato salad. Frankly, I think I’ve lost my appetite for what BTS is dishing.
[2]

Michael Hong: Too laid back to be exciting yet too pleasant to be objectionable. It’s simply fine, nice even. 
[4]

Rachel Saywitz: BTS isn’t the first K-pop group to directly comment on the COVID-19 pandemic through song — that honor actually goes to their younger BigHit sibling TXT — but they do seem to be the first major pop act to release a COVID-centric song that has such significant impact on the greater music world; the fact that “Life Goes On” went straight to No. 1 on the Hot 100 after its release relays that. I do wish that for all the success the single has gained, it could have at least a little more oomph to it. The pared down production sounds rushed rather than gentle, and it does nothing to lift up a melody that stays traditionally close to the ground, not offering anything too interesting. Where BTS delivers here is in their lyrics, with RM wistfully accepting that we’re “only human after all,” and the song’s chorus thoughtfully comparing an eventual turn to normalcy to “an echo in the forest.” It’s a sweet sentiment and one that is sure to comfort the fans that wish to see the group on stage again, but unfortunately I have a feeling that the echo our world will receive will be distorted and scarred. Life does go on, but it might not be as nice as the one BTS is showing us. 
[6]