BTS return from military service - but does their album live up to the hype?

The return of BTS is a big deal. In case you were in any doubt, just look at the frenzy surrounding the South Koreans' comeback. On Saturday, the band will kick off a sold-out, 82-date world tour with a free concert in Seoul, which is expected to be attended by more than 250,000 in-person fans and will be live-streamed on Netflix to more than 190 countries. When the tour wraps up in 2027, BTS are expected to have generated more than $1bn in revenue. Some more outlandish estimates suggest they will eclipse the $2bn haul of Taylor Swift's Eras tour. Even so, demand is so high that Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has written to the South Korean government asking for BTS to play more shows in her country. Eager fans have pre-saved the band's tenth album, Arirang, more than five million times on Spotify - the highest number ever achieved by a K-Pop group. And shares in the band's record company, HYBE, have soared in anticipation of the release. During the band's four-year hiatus - during which all seven members completed South Korea's mandatory 18-month military service - the company's operating profit dropped by almost 37.5%. Accordingly, the expectations for Arirang are huge. Fans are desperate to see the group back together, but with the K-Pop industry shaken by scandals and stalling album sales, there's a sense that BTS's return is a litmus test for the genre's continued international appeal. The band could have played it safe. Before taking time off, the band had settled into making sleek, shimmery retro-disco tracks like Dynamite and Butter - designed to appeal to the sort of listener who finds Bruno Mars too crass and abrasive. Surefire radio hits, they cemented BTS as the biggest K-Pop band on Planet Earth - especially in English-speaking markets. But they sacrificed the scrappy energy of early songs like Am I Wrong, where Suga called out a South Korean official who said the country should enact a class system in which 99% of citizens would be treated "like dogs and pigs". The good news is the band have rekindled that fire. The opening 15 minutes of Arirang have the rebellious, rap-heavy energy of the band's 2014 album, Dark & Wild. "Don't stand too close to the fire," they warn on FYA, a deliciously dark serving of Jersey club music, full of revving synths and distorted beats. Hooligan is equally audacious, with a rhythm track built from the sound of sharpening knives and snatches of cinematic strings that somehow leads into a dizzying falsetto chorus. Produced by Spanish musician El Guincho - responsible for cutting-edge tracks by Rosalía and Charli XCX - it finds the band returning to their roots and "acting the fool again", while asserting their global dominance. "This is international, make it unforgettable," they declare, in what feels like a manifesto for their comeback. But the band are also careful to acknowledge their homeland - perhaps aware of accusations their national identity had got somewhat lost in the music they made before the hiatus. The album's title, Arirang, is also the name of Korea's most beloved folk song, a sentimental anthem about moving from hardship towards something better. It is not lost on the band that the first known recording of Arirang was made in the United States in 1896, performed by a group of seven Korean men at Howard University. A promotional video for the album shows RM, V, Jin, Jungkook, Jimin, j-hope and Suga listening to that wax cylinder recording, creating a connection across 130 years of history and placing them in a tradition of exporting Korean culture to the world. Emphasising that concept, musical motifs from Arirang appear on the album's opening track, Body To Body, harnessed to a clattering hip-hop beat. Addressed to their fans, the lyrics draw on themes of reconnection and reunion, before an almighty bass drop and the declaration: "I need the whole stadium to jump". After the energy of the five opening songs, we hear the resonant toll of The Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok - one of Korea's national treasures - and BTS slip into a more contemplative mode. Swim, the album's first single, is subtle and restrained, the sort of music that drifts lazily into your ears before getting stuck on your internal radio. Chiefly written by band leader RM, it's a song about surrendering to the currents of life and moving forward, even when the tide threatens to pull you under. It's a theme that recurs on subsequent tracks - perhaps suggesting that BTS were wary about dipping their toes back into the choppy waters of fame. "My life is a broken roller coaster, but maybe I'm the only one to blame," they sing on the melancholy Merry Go Round. "I do my best, but I can't slow down this merry go round." The subsequent track, Normal, is billed as "exploring the space between spotlight and silence" and expresses ambivalence about the cost of celebrity, with lyrics about surviving criticism and having to fake happiness for the cameras. "Now I understand the truth, some pain is real / If everything's just happy, that ain't real." Those songs will undoubtedly be scrutinised by fans, especially after Jungkook recently posted, and then deleted, a livestream video in which he shared his frustrations with life as a K-Pop idol. But the album also makes it clear BTS have re-committed to this career. As they sing on Normal: "Fantasy and fame, they're the things we choose." And there's a cheeky riposte to their critics on the jazzy potboiler They Don't Know 'Bout Us: "You say we changed? We feel the same." The closing third of the album heads into the night, with a suite of more seductive songs, including the surprisingly carnal Like Animals, which comes complete with a squealing guitar solo. But this section is where the album drifts into mediocrity, with a handful of meandering, mid-tempo love songs that don't really add much to the overall package. One More Night features a funky 1990s house bassline, but doesn't commit to the sound in the same way as recent house-centric K-Pop hits by Hearts2Hearts (Focus) and KiiKii (404 New Era). And Please, a slick piece of harmonic pop, is perfectly pleasant without leaving a lasting impression. BTS rally round on the closing track, Into The Sun. Experimental and fun, it crushes the stars' voices through digital effects that give their declarations of undying love a yearning, other-worldly quality. In the closing minute, it switches into stadium rock bombast, as the band sing, "I'll follow you into the sun". With Arirang representing a genuine return to form, you can bet their fans will be right there alongside them.