BTS is known for being able to portray messages in their lyrics that they want other people to be familiar with and for the last album, they had completed their first mini-album in the ‘Love Yourself series. Following a series of events, each album would signify a phase in love and how it relates back to ultimately loving yourself. Their first album consisted of how to love firsts feel like, the joy and happiness it gives you which made it a happier album. Unlike this comeback, however, this was the second phase of having a ‘Fake Love.’ In context and according to a very recent Billboard interview with BTS, they concluded that this album was inspired by the thought that if you can’t bring yourself to love yourself, your love wouldn’t last long which is why it was called ‘Fake Love’.
Now, this was a message that I was looking for in this album. I knew that after a happy and joyful concept, BTS would venture out again in the darker concepts so I was expecting something similar. However, I would gladly say that they really have outdone themselves.
Starting from the MV, in general, it was very well directed and aesthetic. A lot of the scenes in the MV were relatable to previous MV’s and themes like Suga with fire, Jimin with water, the earthquake, etc. that made the MV feel more realistic - to me, at least. And with the aesthetics and sets, they really fit with the lyrics and concept of ‘Fake Love’ which I thought was actually very well conducted and explained.
The choreography, was very detailed when speaking in terms of the lyrics for the actual song (which we will get to next) as there were a lot of emotional dance moves that related pretty well to the theme which I found very engaging and I could see that through the choreo, they weren’t just trying to express the dance, but they were trying to express the feeling which, as a dancer, is important for any dance.
The actual song was very realistic in terms of wording and relatability. It fully explains how you try changing yourself and lying to yourself just so that you can get your love to work, but it can’t unless you learn to love who you really are first. They portrayed a very important message that even gets me emotional, and I hope that through this series, more people can find out that loving yourself is truly the most important thing in the world.
I think that Fake Love was a very relatable song, for many people.
The relatable lyrics, that really touched everyone.
For example-
For you, I could pretend like I was happy when I was sad,
For you could pretend like I was strong when I was hurt,
I wanna be a good man, just for you
I gave the world, just for you
I changed everything, just for you
Speaking for the whole album, I have to be honest, there wasn’t really a song in that album that I didn’t like. Meaning, that I loved the whole album. The songs were very touching, emotional, dark, yet satisfying to hear (is that a thing?). You can tell how much work the members put in, into creating this full-length album and I just have to give it to them, that this might be one of their best albums. Even with Singularity, I feel like it was a very good way to give us a glimpse of the album as the whole album had a more slow and vocally-focused intent.