Two years ago, Jin of BTS released “The Astronaut.” He sang of finding a love who became his universe, and in the music video, ran all the way home to them. With this promise to fans that a glittering cosmos awaited them for all eternity, he enlisted for his mandatory military service as a South Korean citizen.
What’s Jin done since June, after 18 months out of the public eye? Well, he’s been running again. He’s run up mountains and across uninhabited islands, in computer games and on museum floors, with the Coast Guard and for the Olympic Games.
One could ask why the 31-year-old artist, a member of the most successful boy band of this era, has filled his schedule with seemingly miscellaneous activities. If so, you’d have an answer straight from Jin’s mouth. In Episode 11 of his recent reality show, Run Jin, he blithely explained to a college student that the life of a superstar can feel like much of the same. “I create content and I sing,” he said.
And he has been singing. The very next day after he completed his service (and was serenaded by BTS’s leader RM on the saxophone), Jin chose to hug a thousand fans and then perform for 4,000 of them. He opened with the pop-rock tune “The Astronaut,” then followed it with the jaunty trot song “Super Tuna” and the emotive “Moon.” But once again, these music performances were slotted between performances of another kind: humorous skits which referenced online challenges and eating content he’d filmed throughout the years.
Such is the life that was determined for him when he debuted as an idol under Big Hit Entertainment in 2013, and such is the life that he’s chosen to continue. It turns out he’s pretty good at his job — to be a unique K-pop mix of entertainer and performer — and he likes the person it’s made him become. He’s chattier, breezier, and more optimistic.
Of all the members, Jin is perhaps the most at peace with his public-facing role, and the most concise about his purpose. On the talk show Salon Drip hosted by comedian Jang Doyeon, he shared, “As someone who is very thankful to my fans, it’s my job to make them happy.” As a result, Jin didn’t seek to showcase a different side of himself like others in BTS at the beginning of their next season, or “Chapter 2.” Rather, he was ready to make good on his prior promise: to continue into eternity with and for those who love him.
Jin’s first official album, then, is a beautiful inevitability: he runs all through Happy, equating this forward movement to freedom, courage, and hope. Five of the six tracks are shots of pure, unadulterated energy: none are over the three minute mark, and they’re eminently repeatable. In collaboration with rock musicians from the U.S., U.K., Japan, and Korea, Jin’s voice traverses from rich and low to soaring highs over the band’s rhythmic charge.
“Running Wild” is the lead single, a pop-rock track co-produced by Gary Barlow of legendary British rock band Take That. For the music video, we’re taken all the way to the apocalypse. Sonically and visually a sequel to “The Astronaut,” Jin replicates his alien character with the same expressionless, placid reactions to the strange, such as meteorites crashing down on earth. But if this is the case, he’s now lived long enough here to know how to enjoy his last day on earth. He urges us to remember what it means to be human: to find joy in despair; to find something to live for.
The lyrics similarly invite the listener to break free from their stagnancy and set off on a new adventure with him. “Don’t you let our love go cold / When we’re standing still,” he warns. “We’ll be running wild / Loving ‘til the sun is out / Running ‘til there’s nothing left / ‘Til our last breath.” Fans haven’t had a spare moment in this supposed quiet enlistment period, but it certainly has injected new fervor into the fandom now that Jin and J-Hope of BTS are back and moving.
The alt-rock “Another Level” describes a maze of a stage, and how one must blaze through to the end, resiliently bouncing back and hitting as necessary. It wouldn’t be out of place in a game soundtrack, which is certainly appropriate considering the lyrics are an extended metaphor of leveling up in one. And yet the lyrics echo BTS’ “We are Bulletproof : The Eternal” (2020), so also invite other interpretations of the stage.
“Falling” is a strong declaration of desire, made more thrilling by the instrumental skills of Taka and Toru of Japanese band ONE OK ROCK. The twist is in how the lyrics are a cry that doesn’t escape the safety of the mind. He’s fallen hard but unable to confess. His thoughts are racing all night as he declares his heart to be all theirs, but face to face, he’s barely able to look them in the eye or take one step closer. “You’re my soul and / I’m just somebody,” he admits in the end. (Fans will certainly cry at the irony of Jin singing such a song to them.)
“Heart on the Window” is bright and lush, as Jin and Wendy of Red Velvet sing of etching the other deeper into their heart. Warm and upbeat, it provides hope that love can be buoyant and fresh through the passage of time. They may weave their voices to declare, “I’ll love you better,” but it isn’t to compare themselves to other relationships. Instead, it’s about aligning their hearts and choosing to put in the work as they look towards an even brighter future: “Oh, I’ll love you better, / I promise, I etch my heart.” Then, the climax: “I’ll love you better / with my heart on the window.” That is, love flows more confidently with regular proof, though small they may be. The song ends unresolved, anticipatory for the next moment.
Such a frame allows the spring warmth of the final ballad to seep into one’s heart. “I will come to you,” titled “그리움” (longing) in Korean, is a lullaby for his fans. Accompanied only by an acoustic piano, Jin sings words he’d penned within a couple of days after his return — words he’d kept near his heart through his service: “I promise, I will come to you / If you need me, I will come to you.”
They’re words also found in the rockabilly pre-release track “I’ll Be There” co-produced by MAX. “I will be there forever, I won’t change, I’ll be there for you,” he sang, “I swear that I will sing for you.” His bandmate SUGA had once personified music itself for a feature with veteran singer Lee Sora, rapping, “I’ll be with you, for your birth and your end … / [I hope] that you’d remember I’m with you, wherever you are.” But to promise your whole person for all eternity? It’s a tall order.
Yet Jin puts everything on the line with an enviable buoyancy. And hearing “I will come to you” at the end of six new tracks, eleven years into a journey with Jin of BTS, we realize his confidence is rooted in deep foundations. His promise isn’t a sweet nothing, but a fully realized statement. For every kind of moment we experience, there is a video or song he has prepared for us to play.
Happy is therefore about energetic movement of the individual towards a chosen goal and greater intimacy with the other. In recognition of this, the final touch of this album is that it’s not only easy to sing along to in the home or car, but in a live setting with him. Many of the choruses feel purposefully crafted this way, and have left space for phrases to be repeated back to him. This dynamic give-and-take is what Jin thrives on. After all, this is a man who’d asked for just one thing in his final song — “I long for you so much / Please hug me” — and ensured that he’d share in a thousand of them the day after his return.
