RM, renowned member from worldwide supergroup BTS, has recently released his second full-length album titled Indigo.
Indigo is a 10-track collection of RM and his collaboration with several huge artists – all hailing from both the Eastern and Western front. Among them are the legendary Erykah Badu, Anderson .Paak, Epik High’s Tablo and Kim Sawol.
Certainly, for a second album, RM wasn’t afraid to utilise his expanding resources and connections to advance his artistic journey. The biggest interest to both his longtime fans and casual listeners is how his sonic ideas come to realisation – particularly when making decisions on who should be in his album, and how he, as a solo artist – that is to say, having a space to cultivate as his own – is elevating both his musicality and the people who became part of Indigo.
According to several interviews, RM had explicitly stated his deliberate hands-on involvement with the album – from the collaboration decision to the post-production process. A 50-minute interview of him detailing his creative process and journey explains it better – you can view it HERE.
My 2Cents
Objectively, this full-length album denotes a myriad of sounds and genres blended seamlessly and thoughtfully to evoke a mixture of different emotions – aptly so, as he had mentioned in his talk show with fellow group member Suga, in that he views Indigo as a diary to document his journey of going through his 20s.
Having taken interest in the product of each member individually instead of a collective, watching RM move away from his BTS-rooted work is a wonderful breath of fresh air. However, upon giving the album a once-over for the first time, there is an undeniable truth in that RM is still RM of BTS, and that is a source of comfort in and of itself.
Featuring the ethereal Wild Flower as the debut single, RM delivers a powerful ballad featuring Youjeen of rock band Cherry Filter whose vocal prowess elevated the track to new heights.
The sultry R&B track Yun featuring Erykah Badu was a beautiful departure from the heavily-laden riffs we are all familiar with – and the perfect introduction to RM’s brand new chapter.
There are a number of feel-good and high-energy tracks like Still Life and All Day, interweaved together with mellow tracks like Closer and Lonely and finally a sweet, folk-inspired track featuring Kim Sawol called Forg_tful that ultimately proves RM as both an impressive musician, producer and overall artist.
Verdict
It is interesting, to say the least, that the direction he has wished to go to is less about experimentation but more about earnestly expressing himself as an artist – the life experiences that he has gone through as both an individual and a public figure, a human simply figuring out his 20s but amplified through the limelight for the whole world to see.
Indigo is a collection of poetry bundled up in a nice love letter that RM has chosen to share with the world.
