Right Place, Wrong Person

Album review

In June 2022, K-Pop icons BTS used their annual FESTA celebration to share food, reminisce on their years together, and deliver unthinkable news: the group was going on hiatus. It soon became clear to ARMYs that this would be a welcome respite: each member candidly revealed a sense of unease about their identity, a desire to authentically represent themselves, and a fear of disappointing fans that you wouldn't expect from the world's biggest boy band. With the heat taken down a notch, members gradually used the hiatus to deepen their own artistic identities -- and few have taken greater advantage of this than the group’s leader and main rapper RM.
Branching out from the harmonic, well-received Indigo, RM’s second (hiatus) album, Right Place, Wrong Person, bypasses any expectations of what a BTS record should sound like. The anchor here is warped and upbeat with a core of Neptunes-esque funk-rap influences taken from the alternative rap spectrum. Exactly where on the spectrum these ideas land varies drastically -- from the squelchy, stank-face basses of "Nuts" to the whistling closing credits of "Come Back to Me" -- but there's a Gorillaz-like cohesion to the whole thing -- nothing lands unnaturally in this rapidly morphing space. A certified artillery of musicians behind the boards, among them Mokyo, Rad Museum, Kim Hanjoo, Ohhyuk, and Jclef, provide a pumping vitality and deft instrumental shifts, while the energetic presence of creative director and close friend San Yawn (of experimental K-Pop outfit Balming Tiger) takes the rule-bending even further. It's a fittingly untamed sound for someone who has never slotted neatly into one place.
This nonconformist backbone is not just the album's sound, but its entire ethos. RM's lyrics gravitate between ideas of perception and discovery, hitting out at friends who just want "another pose" from him, scowling down at the "diplomat"-like role assigned to him, and discarding expectations in accepting his "broken self." Yet for all its headstrong energy, Namjoon's persona is equally vulnerable to these messy, chaotic spaces: a tempestuous former lover plays muse on "Nuts" while "Come Back to Me" ascends to an unnamed, divine pain.
It's in one of the best tracks, "LOST!," that things truly fall into place. Over a Tyler, The Creator-like collage of nostalgic synths and padded choruses, Namjoon finds euphoria in losing himself in the world as he spirals into new experiences amid old temptations and self-doubt. Right Place, Wrong Person is fundamentally a record of self-acceptance, but it's a kind of self-acceptance that's seen much less often -- punchy and upbeat and even broken, it's a reflection of a messy self-hood that never risks relying on vague, affirmative clichés. Of all the lessons he draws, Namjoon leaves us with one critical truth: much like the album itself, life is beautiful because of, not in spite of, its wonkiness.

© David Crone /TiVo