BTS – Swim

Closing out April with a trio of K-pop singles! First, the prodigal return of this group of hooligans…

[Video]
[4.14]

Katherine St. Asaph: ARIRANG may well end up being BTS’s “New Jersey” (“a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow and signals a career decline”). The record-setting sales are apparently not record-setting enough; HYBE’s already tried to improve “Swim””s streaming numbers (no pun intended) by releasing several re-releases in genres they describe like Suno prompts: “melodic techno,” “chill hip-hop.” There are rumblings of defectors in the ARMY ranks, and of inter-band tensions and label drama behind the scenes. It’s unclear how much of this is real and how much of this is the wishful fantasies of BTS’s equally devoted following of haters, but the rumors aren’t exactly dispelled by the fact that even in BTS’s own promotional maerials, the group is seen arguing themselves about whether their single “Swim” is boring. In a post-“WAP,” and more importantly post-“Seven” world, introducing your single with Jung Kook singing “I could spend a lifetime watching you… swim” makes one wonder whether they’ll request a bucket and a mop. But “Swim” isn’t trying to be Usher’s “Dive,” it’s trying to be Frank Ocean’s “Swim Good”: an introspective, even mournful track overshadowed by his love songs. BTS’s increasingly explicit ambivalence about fame is also Franklike: it’s text elsewhere on ARIRANG, and it’s subtext here. They sort of seduce but also sort of brood, on and on till the road runs out.
[6]

Claire Davidson: The opening of “Swim” is somewhat misleading: Jung Kook’s subdued delivery and the track’s mewling keys promise a more tranquil ballad, but then the song shifts to a midtempo pop track, where the BTS members trade verses defined more by gregarious bragging about their partners than a sense of true intimacy with the audience. That approach is odd for a song with a central metaphor of love as a gaping body of water; one would think such vistas would inspire greater awe.
[4]

Alfred Soto: As usual with these guys, I respond when the vocals match the blips and the beats. This one boasts a soggy chorus but decent verses: they sound like a PG-rated Weeknd.
[5]

Nortey Dowuona: Imagine making this absolute gem then absolutely fucking fumbling this. (As for LeClair, you are forgiven. But I’m watching you.)
[0]

Julian Axelrod: I’ve never fully gotten into K-pop because the rabid fandom it inspires feels so intimidating. Keeping up with the mini albums, label drama and solo ventures always seemed like a full-time job, and I already have one of those. For better or worse, “Swim” feels like BTS for beginners; even the aggressive accessibility of their English crossover hits became more interesting within the context of their career. The smooth ocean of glassy synths is only interrupted by two moments of friction: J-Hope referring to his hands as fins a la LL Cool J in Deep Blue Sea, and the line where it sounds like RM says, “I’m in the D, tell me, where the hell you at girl?”, like he spent his hiatus mainlining Drego & Beno mixtapes. But if the BTS boys move to Detroit or a shark man joins the group, I will immediately become Army, no questions asked.
[6]

Alex Clifton: “Swim” is to BTS’s back catalogue as LaCroix seltzer water is to real fruit. If you’ve never had a lime and taste a LaCroix, you get a pretty good approximation of the flavour; then you taste a real lime and realize it was just an approximation. There’s so much more complexity to BTS’s work that doesn’t translate into a (heh) watered-down version. BTS has done lovely ballads in the past! This is not one of them. This is the comeback single we’ve been waiting five years for, and you’re rhyming “girl” with “world”? Even more confusingly, Hybe released seven remixes with wildly different backing tracks (Afrobeat, alt-rock, techno). The mark of a strong song is the ability to transcend genre — bluegrass covers of Radiohead songs always slap — but with “Swim,” throwing out all these disparate styles muddies the original version and also indicates the song doesn’t have a strong identity on its own.
[4]

Al Varela: Look, I like BTS. They have a lot of music I love, and I have no issue with them pursuing the American pop market so long as the songs themselves are still good. I like “Dynamite,” I like “Butter.” So with love for these boys in my heart, I must say: Do fucking better. 
[4]