Music Review: BTS Baritone V Makes a Smooth Alt-R&B Landing on ‘Layover,’ His First Solo Album

This cover image released by BigHit Music shows "Layover" by V. (AP)
This cover image released by BigHit Music shows "Layover" by V. (AP)
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Music Review: BTS Baritone V Makes a Smooth Alt-R&B Landing on ‘Layover,’ His First Solo Album

This cover image released by BigHit Music shows "Layover" by V. (AP)
This cover image released by BigHit Music shows "Layover" by V. (AP)

A lot can go wrong when a performer endeavors outside of the group that made their career. In the case of BTS baritone V, a lot can go right, as well.

“Layover,” the first solo album from V, is moody, smooth alt-R&B, a collection of songs that feels true to the performer — and offers a glimpse into his oft-considered mysterious interiority.

First came the two singles, the bilingual “Love Me Again” and “Rainy Days” — the former, languid pop with V’s voice high in the mix, the latter, a syrupy, lo-fi post-breakup ballad. “Blue” and “For Us” connect the two. “Slow Dancing” is a standout, with its impromptu flute solo at the song’s coda.

“Layover” is V’s first solo album, but BTS ARMY know this is in no way his first solo experience: he’s released a few with the band, including 2016’s “Stigma” and 2020’s “Inner Child.”

But it is “Singularity,” V’s opening cut from BTS’s 2018 album “Love Yourself: Tear,” that stands out. “The illusions that torture me are still the same,” V sings. “Did I lose myself, or did I gain you?”

At the time, critics theorized that V was referencing the Greek myth of Narcissus — it certainly wouldn’t be the first time this K-pop group pulled out an academic reference point — but all seemed to agree that when given the opportunity to perform on his own, V has a particular musical magic, a kind of soulful, sensual approach to R&B. Where harmonies dominate, his husky tone cuts through, demanding attention. In that way, “Singularity” is the antecedent of “Layover.”

Historically, when an artist goes solo, it is symbolic of a new chapter. Maybe it’s a boy band member leaving to become a man-musician, individuating beyond the support network that built them, not unlike a child leaving home in young adulthood. Maybe it’s a cry for creative freedom — to no longer feel their identity is tied to their fellow performers.

But the members of BTS, history-makers and record-breakers that they are, offer an alternative. They’re not on hiatus; nor have they broken up. While its seven members take turns fulfilling South Korea’s mandatory military service (Jin and J-hope have enlisted; Suga has begun the process) the others will release their own individual records, allowing fans to spend more time with them in the process.

In the case of V, it’s an opportunity to experiment — and it’s yielding great results.



In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
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In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Wearing an oversized bucket hat, silver chains and a black Miu Miu shirt, 82-year-old Park Jeom-sun gesticulates, her voice rising and falling with staccato lines about growing chili peppers, cucumbers and eggplants.
Park, nicknamed Suni, was flanked by seven longtime friends who repeated her moves and her lines. Together, they're Suni and the Seven Princesses, South Korea 's latest octogenarian sensation. With an average age of 85, they're probably the oldest rap group in the country, The Associated Press said.
Born at a time when women were often marginalized in education, Park and her friends were among a group of older adults learning how to read and write the Korean alphabet, hangeul, at a community center in their farming village in South Korea’s rural southeast.
They were having so much fun that they started dabbling with poetry. They began writing and performing rap in summer last year.
Suni and the Seven Princesses enjoy nationwide fame, appearing in commercials and going viral on social media. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo sent them a congratulatory message last month on their first anniversary, praising their passion for learning.
At a road near their community center in Chilgok on Thursday, Park and her friends were rehearsing for a performance Friday evening in the capital, Seoul, where they were invited to open an event celebrating hangeul heritage.
“Picking chili peppers at the pepper field, picking cucumbers at the cucumber field, picking eggplants at the eggplant field, picking zucchini at the zucchini field!” the group rapped along with Park. "We’re back home now and it feels so good!”
Park said the group usually practices two or three times a week, more if they're preparing for a show.
On Friday, hundreds of people applauded and cheered, and then the group lined up for a photo with South Korean Culture Minister Yu In Chon.
Park talked about the joy of learning to read, saying she can now “go to the bank, ride the bus and go anywhere” she wants without someone helping her.
“During and after the Korean War, I couldn’t study because of the social atmosphere, but I started learning hangeul in 2016,” Park said, referring to the devastating war between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. “Being introduced to rap while learning hangeul has made me feel better, and I thought it would help me stay healthy and avoid dementia.”
Kang Hye-eun, Park’s 29-year-old granddaughter and a local healthcare worker who helps older adults, said she was proud to see her grandmother on television and in viral videos.
“It’s amazing that she got to know hangeul like this and has started to rap,” she said.