“I’ve been broken and then put back together so many times,” BTS leader RM told the fashion brand 032c in his final interview before enlisting in the Korean military last year. “I realized that the person I think I am doesn’t really exist.” On his heady second solo album, RM digs into that existential dilemma, interrogating the relationship between his world-conquering presented self and the “ordinary young man named Kim Namjoon” that he would be if he hadn’t taken the pop-star path.
RM’s lyrical ride is made even more mind-expanding by the music laid down by RM and his collaborators, including San Yan of the K-hip-hop collective Balming Tiger and the Dallas duo DOMi and JD Beck. Building on the sonic palette of RM’s 2022 solo debut Indigo , Right Place, Wrong Person is psychedelia-tinged and soulful, its lyrics’ intense self-interrogation balanced by music that feels like an invite to further explorations. “Right People, Wrong Place” kicks off the album on a leery note, RM turning over the title’s four words as if the right combination of them will unlock a core truth while claustrophobic synths close in on him.
From there, RM digs in; “Nuts,” which pivots out of a blown-out robo-funk bass, finds RM in a stop-start seductive mode, wrestling between wanting someone and feeling down on love, while “Domodachi,” which features an assist from the British MC Little Simz, depicts RM and his friends closing ranks, with an insistent woodwind loop.