K-Bops in K-Pop

She’s back and just in time for BTS to make everyone elevate out of their bodies and into another plane of existence. So much has happened this week: BTS dropped their trailer for their next comeback, the tour tickets went on sale, and I fell another week behind on Run (I really do have to find time to watch it). I, unfortunately, was not able to throw myself into the Colosseum of pain and suffering that is buying BTS tickets because I’m paying for a wedding, but many well wishes to those of you who tried and I hope you all get to go if you wanted to. Setting all of that aside, let’s get into the meat of things and start talking about Singularity.

Revolutionary? Revolutionary.

Let me just start off by saying that BTS always delivers on their intros so it was no surprise to me that this one would be just as good. At first, it took me a second to realize just what was going on because A) I didn’t expect Tae to be doing the intro and B) it was three minutes long! The length of a full song! Not just a measly one minute intro!

That said, the first thing that struck me was the sensuality of the choreography. Leave it up to BigHit to have a woman’s hand caressing Taehyung without having an actual woman in the video. I have to say that I appreciate the slight–slight–gender ambiguity, but largely it just seems like a way to stop fangirls from losing their shit at another girl touching their fave.

All that aside, I still love the intimacy of the gentle face touches sand I’d be interested to see this performed live. You know, with real girls. I mean, I’d also be down to see dudes do it. But you get what I mean–real people instead of coat hangers.

It is also super, super fitting for Taehyung’s voice and his musical style. We know from Stigma that Tae adores that bluesy, jazzy sound and nothing exemplifies that better than Singularity. Unlike Stigma, however, Namjoon wrote this one for Taehyung–which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest given how incredible Namjoon is at writing songs that perfectly suit his members.

What Does It Mean for the Album?

The lyrics are crazy haunting and very moody for the start of an album. Love Yourself: Her seemed to be more about the prospect of a new love–among a variety of other things like “Did you see my bag? Because it’s got hella trophies and it’s also hella thick.”–and this one seems to be the downfall of that love? Or perhaps the pain of it. It reminds of Outro: Her and how Namjoon explained the lyric “I call you her, her, ’cause you’re my tear, tear” as being something like the dichotomy of love and how it can be both exciting and excruciating.

Regardless, it seems like this album will have a much more somber tone. It will be refreshing to see BTS drop an actual new album in the spring instead of just a repackage of the last. Not that I don’t love repackages–because I do–but I love to see BTS grow and develop way more.

Final Thoughts

I gotta say, in spite of how incredible it was–because it was–I still love Serendipity more. This is me, a certified eternal Hob Stan, and I still say that Serendipity is my favorite intro. I think it has something to do with the dreaminess of it and how sweet Jimin’s vocals are and how much of a sucker I am for love songs. Probably a combination of all those things. Still, I’m super proud of Tae and this was such an incredible way to start off the new album.

What did you think about Singularity? Did it live up to your expectations? Leave me a comment and let me know!