When RM’s first full-length solo album, Indigo, dropped in 2022, he expressed his desire to explore with the sounds he was making and the genres he was tapping into—all to conceive the weight the BTS leader had been carrying with him for the past decade. “My focus was not on having these many genres in the album, but rather trying new sounds. I wanted to explore different kinds of music, whether it’s folk, rock, or city pop, and digest them in the right way so that it doesn’t just end up as [an] ‘experiment’,” he tells Vogue.
Two years on, his second audio package—Right Place, Wrong Person—continues this audible sense of tinkering, in a way that is both more authentic, and inevitably much more ‘experimental’, perhaps even more so than previously. What’s crucial though, is that it’s precisely the way he likes it. After listening to all 11 songs on its final track list, here are some thoughts we had about RM’s latest album.
- Starting off with ‘Right People, Wrong Place’, RM gently lets us in on his conflicted sense of self. Not only is the song title a direct opposition to the title of his album, the juxtaposing lyrics constantly flit between a universal truth; of missed opportunities, relationships and the floaty feeling that we’re not where we’re supposed to be.
- Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, and we unearth all these mangled feelings RM has buried thus far most intensely in the first third of the album. ‘Nuts’ excavates this through a dissonant funk bass that only seems to get heavier towards the end. Meanwhile ‘out of love’ gives him the metaphorical space to bang it out whilst being the track that reminds us most of his roots in the underground rap scene. It’s an angry, moody exposition of his life in the public eye—which he likens to cigarettes and smoke.
- There’s a point in ‘Domodachi (feat. Lil Simz)’ which first made me look up the production credits for this album. Apart from how this distorted, psychedelic track suddenly builds up into raging guitar riffs for Little Simz’s rap feature, it is the sloshy addition of a backtrack that sounds intensely like Balming Tiger’s ‘Kamehameha’ that really hones its genius. True enough, San Yawn, the K-collective’s creative director is credited for the entirety of Right Place, Wrong Person.
- There is no time to seek out perfection. RM conveys this sentiment in some of the seemingly more ‘awkward’ tracks—which also turn out to be welcome segues mid-listen. Such as the jazzy splash of elevator music in ‘? (Interlude)’, produced by jazz duo Domi and JD Beck.
- A reference to his fellow partner-in-crime in BTS is only to be expected, and RM does it through ‘Groin’, which is arguably one of our favourites on the album. The lyrics in Suga’s ‘Intro: Never Mind’ goes “If you think you’re gonna crash/accelerate even harder, you idiot,” and RM seems to adopt a mood of casual insouciance in response—using a play on the same lyrics: “If I feel like I’m going to crash/then I just accelerate even harder”. In some sense, it’s as if the BTS leader is telling us that the world will eventually have to accept him for who he is, risks be damned.
- Towards the second half, we’re met with the sonically more upbeat songs of the album, with tracks like ‘Heaven’ and ‘Lost!’. Yet a closer listen to the lyrics reveals the melancholic undercurrent which he has hinted at from the start. Only if this were the five stages of grief, we’d be somewhere between depression and acceptance.
- There’s never been any doubt about the off-kilter way RM often views the world, and if we needed any proof in this album, it would be in ‘ㅠㅠ (Credit Roll)’ that literally likens the experience of the song to watching the rolling credits after a film.
- Right Place, Wrong Person rewards the wait. Cue ‘Around the world in a day (feat. Moses Sumney)’ as its ninth track, which sees RM tackle three varied genres head on in a single tune. Soft, lilting acoustics lead us in, before a glitchy soul soundscape opens up into an ecstatic rock-rap turn—and suffice to say, this song is a neat, artful showcase of RM’s experimental phase.
- Considering ‘Come back to me’ was the track he chose to turn into a music video, it was initially unexpected that this would be the album’s outro. Post-listen of the entire album however, the reason seems to be crystal clear enough. A crooning, slow burn track, this song is a beautiful escapade that accepts RM’s journey thus far, as the lyrics ‘you are my pain/divine/divine’ rides it out all the way till the end.
- From his play on genres, in-studio experimentation and openness to work with an all-new slate of producers, this album is utter proof of RM’s evolution as a musician and artist.
- One thing’s for sure. This is no Indigo, where it still felt like every song had been immaculately curated and intentional in its delivery. This is RM in his endless search for the sonic world that could have been, at least once upon a time. It’s RM and Kim Namjoon both, just more curious about the many facets of himself that lie deep within.
Right Place, Wrong Person is available on all streaming platforms.
