If you just hit play on BTS’s new album ARIRANG and thought your phone was broken around the six-track mark, you’re not alone.

The 14-track album has drawn strong praise for its ambition and its aggressive first half, alongside more divided responses to its back end.

The seven-member group is back with their first album in nearly four years, ‘Arirang,’ a hip-hop heavy, Korean folk-infused experimental exploration of how the biggest group in the world can move forward.

BTS reunited after military service with their album, Arirang, a nod to Korea’s cultural anthem often heard at the Olympic Games, highlighting their sports ties – from taekwondo to the FIFA World Cup

It engraved Gwanghwamun as the heart of Seoul and a symbolic space of South Korea in the minds of the global community.” You Hong-june, Director of the National Museum of Korea, shared his impressions with this newspaper after watching BTS’s comeback performance at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on the 21st.

On its blockbuster return, the world's biggest band stresses group identity and South Korean roots, while pushing the songs into adventurous new territory

BTS’ “Arirang,” the group’s first studio album in six years, appears to be living up to its commercial promise, based on first-day streaming results on Spotify. The album bowed with a reported 110

BTS’s fifth album *Arirang* is also performing strongly on charts. Already holding the record for eight K-pop entries (including solo) on the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, BTS is drawing attention to whether they will break this record.