Jimin of BTS shares his inner thoughts in solo debut album FACE

Jimin of BTS released his solo debut album FACE last Friday and it’s breaking records in less than week of its release. It has already surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify, the fastest album by a K-pop soloist to do so and it’s aiming for number 2 on the US album chart becoming the biggest sales week for a Korean soloist in history.

His pre-release single “Set Me Free Pt. 2” has debuted in #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the album also sold over 1 million copies on its first day on the Hanteo Album Chart and it hit number 1 on the Spotify Global Chart. If there were doubts about Jimin being the prince of K-pop, FACE is here to prove to everybody where he sits in the K-pop world.

 

It is obvious how much he played with his voice, that’s so unique for a male vocalist. “Set Me Free Pt. 2” is so powerful and he knew how to use his voice and the mechanisms he had at his service to play with his tone. In “Alone” we can listen to both pitches in his voice, a low and a higher pitch working at the same time showing how well Jimin knows his own voice and how potent it can be even in the gentle tone he uses in the song.

What also surprised me is how much Jimin curses in most of the songs, not that there’s something wrong with it, it’s just that Jimin is so delicate and polite all the time you see him on TV that it’s almost impossible to get used to him cursing. However when you read the lyrics it’s obvious why he does it, it’s just the vibe of the song and how freely he’s expressing himself on each one of them.

Jimin is involved in the writing of each song in the album alongside other writers and producers. Before FACE we only had the tracks “Promise” and “Christmas Love” written by Jimin, and now we can see a deeper side of the BTS member. His lyrics are honest and show his inner thoughts, like wanting to be free of the ropes that don’t allow him to express himself or the loneliness and fears he felt during the pandemic. Feelings he talked emotionally about during the Map Of The Soul online concert BTS had in 2020.

The album’s first track “Face-off” is intriguing, it starts off with a melody of a fair or a circus and unexpectedly goes a little darker especially on the lyrics that sound almost angry, a little rebellious. It’s by far my favorite track on FACE.

In “Interlude: Dive” you can only listen to melodies and a quick speech of Jimin introducing himself in a concert, probably a track to ease the way to the main track “Like Crazy” that has raised so many theories among ARMY, remarkably because of the movie video. I’m not saying that the theories are true, but it would be so nice of Jimin to subtly show a side of him he might be keeping inside for so long, so brave to show what he probably felt the need to hide.

The song goes to a style I did not expect from Jimin, it surprised me a lot that he chose it as the main track. At first I had my doubts about it being good enough for the main track, but let’s face it (no pun intended), Jimin did not make any mistakes with this album.

“Alone” gives a vibe of a drunk confession after a hard day, it’s beautifully written. It goes deep in the topic of loneliness and depression. My second favorite track is definitely “Set Me Free Pt. 2”, it’s such a new genre for Jimin, he did not disappoint with the choreography and the looks on the movie video, he blew everyone’s mind with it.

I can’t not end this article before talking about “Letter”, the hidden track that only those who bought the album will be able to listen to. According to Jimin, he wrote a letter and it became a song. It’s an honest and emotional expression of his feelings after the group’s activities were put on hold.

https://twitter.com/jmnternity/status/1640359978698678272

Also I can’t forget to mention that RM and Jungkook are part of this album as well, RM helped with the lyrics in some songs and Jungkook with vocals for “Letter”. Jimin mentioned in an interview that before himself believed that he could go and release an album, his members did it first and they have been showing how supportive they are of their bandmate. J-hope was present in the making of the “Like Crazy” movie video and SUGA received Jimin on his Youtube Show Suchwita where both the singer and the rapper talked about many things, including their pre-debut days.

You can listen to FACE on Spotify:

ARMY, keep streaming and buying it! Let’s break more records for Jimin!