BTS just delivered one of the most gut-wrenching ballads of the year. The group’s chart-topping new studio album BE is one of the very few pop albums in 2020 that was directly inspired by the global pandemic. Skeptics may brush BTS off as a teen fad, but as a pop fan I find the group and their music alluring. BE is an inspired, well-rounded album with a message that matters. Especially now. Take for example “Blue & Grey.” It’s a harrowing ballad that’s beautifully performed by all the group’s members, including V who is the lead lyricist on the track. “Blue & Grey” captures the low point that many of us have felt this year. BTS perfectly puts that hardship in words and melody. It creates an emotional highpoint that helps define Be and ups BTS’s artistic cred. (Stream BTS “Blue & Grey on Apple Music.)
