BTS Releases Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey, Sweeps Charts
South Korean stars, BTS, have finally released their much awaited full length Japanese studio album. The 13 track album is called “Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey” and has already swept music charts world over.
“Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey” is a compilation of the group’s previous releases and a few new tracks. Japanese remixes of tracks like ‘ON’, ‘Boy With Luv’, ‘Black Swan’ and more feature on the album, much like all their previous Japanese releases.
New tracks on the album include two interludes – an intro, titled ‘Calling’, and an outro, titled ‘The Journey’. In addition to the short samples, three Japanese language tracks also accompany the release: ‘Stay Gold’ and the Jungkook-produced, ‘Your Eyes Tell’, both new releases for the album, and the previously released track, ‘Lights’.
The intro and outro are familiar productions, using elements like distortion, sampling BTS’ own songs. ‘Calling’ quite literally features distorted vocals from the track that follows, ‘Stay Gold’, while the outro, ‘The Journey’ features samples of the preceding track, ‘Your Eyes Tell’.
“Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey” has been breaking records even before its release. ‘Stay Gold’ earned No. 1 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales Chart, earning BTS their 20th No. 1 on the chart, making them the artists with the most No. 1’s on the chart.
With ‘Your Eyes Tell’, the group also sets out to be OST makers for the upcoming Japanese film of the same name. This will be the second time one of their tracks is used as an OST for a Japanese project; the first being ‘Don’t Leave Me’ for the Japanese version of “Signal”.
In the time since its release, “Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey” has reached No. 1 on the World iTunes chart, making BTS the first Korean act of 2020 to do so. It has also become BTS’ first Japanese album to top iTunes charts in both the US and UK. ‘Your Eyes Tell’ has also gone on to reach No. 1 on both the US and UK iTunes charts, as well as hold the top spot on the iTunes Song chart.
“Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey” is out on all streaming platforms now.
By: Ahalya Narayanan
