The 14-track album has drawn strong praise for its ambition and its aggressive first half, alongside more divided responses to its back end.

Four years ago, the boy band went silent — but not before setting off a chain reaction that would reshape the pop market, conquer the Grammys and prime the world for an inevitable comeback.

BTS’ “Arirang,” the group’s first studio album in six years, appears to be living up to its commercial promise, based on first-day streaming results on Spotify. The album bowed with a reported 110 million streams on the service globally,

BTS released their fifth full-length album, Arirang, on March 20, with Swim as the title track. It has broken records at Apple Music.

Some works of art reveal themselves more fully once they’re given context, and BTS’s long-awaited fifth full-length album, “Arirang,” appears to be one of them, its significance to the boy band becoming clearer when put into perspective.

The seven-member group is back with their first album in nearly four years, ‘Arirang,’ a hip-hop heavy, Korean folk-infused experimental exploration of how the biggest group in the world can move forward.

The major BTS reunion concert in Seoul, South Korea featured a notable guest. Singer Becky G, who collaborated with j-hope on his 2019 track Chicken Noodle Soup, was present in the crowd supporting the K-pop group.

BTS leader RM performed with limited movement during FYA at the Arirang concert after suffering an ankle injury during rehearsals.

BTS returned to the stage in front of Gwanghwamun, one of Seoul’s most historically significant sites, with a performance centered on their new album “Arirang.”