A review of Jimin’s debut album
By Mahjabin Rahman
Listening to Park Jimin’s debut album Face, we can all get a feel that this album is very personal. Jimin has said the concept of this entire album is healing. It encounters inner wounds, expresses the desire to win over, battles between one’s true self and the one the entire world wants to see, the pressure of fame, the hardship and the good memories. This album puts together all these emotions.
The first track is “Face-off.” Jimin says this song contains a lot of his thoughts at that time. As he thinks relationships with people are difficult, interacting with people can be hard from time to time. In life, some people departed from him and sometimes he let some go. This is what this song is all about. Trusting a person is compared to a terrible nightmare.
This is the most relatable thought in this song, because we all sometimes find ourselves struggling with trust issues. Also, when we start growing as individuals, the people surrounding us tell us that we are changing, and that they liked the old version of us, without giving us a chance to evolve. This sometimes hampers our spiritual growth, and growing up means evolving.
While doing so we change a lot as a person, we become more mature, wiser, and we understand a lot of things that make it harder to stay as we once were, but sometimes the people around us want us to remain the same and not accept the the real us. So we need to tell these people to stop demanding the old versions of us, rather tell them to accept who we have grown into.
Jimin tries to say that he has accepted himself and he has finally been able to let go of the people that could not accept him.
Track 2, “Interlude: Dive,” is between “Face-off”and “Like crazy,” and an important one for understanding the emotions, as the tracks go on to the next song. Memories of happiness and hard times all are included in it. Jimin has recorded ambient noises, incorporating them into the song. The track starts off with a firm knock on a door, then the music starts, with overlapping conversation, which are actually the opening comments from the BTS Busan 2022 concert. The recording of this track started from early 2022 – it captured the experiences and emotions of Jimin’s as time passed, and it also explains how the entire Face album came together.
“I think we could last forever,” a female voice says as the music starts.
“I’m afraid that everything will disappear.”
“Just trust me.”
The third and title track, “Like Crazy,” a pop song which was a #1 on the billboard hot 100 chart, explains the battle between two opposing personas. This song is inspired by the movie with the same name starring Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, and Jennifer Lawrence. If we focus on the lyrics, it will appear that it is a song about heartbreak. He does not want the night to be over because when the morning comes the reality will hit him and it will be too painful so he rather wants the night to be long and dreamy. He wants to be lost in the night light and he does not want to face reality.
The Korean version of this song expresses how Jimin wanders around and tries to keep love (both for himself and his art) alive when it is about to die. The English version of this song, which is the last song of this album, deals with the inner conflict of Jimin. The conflict between who he actually is and the persona of what the world wants him to be. He’s having doubts that if he goes up too much in the road of fame, will he be able to find his real self?
The fourth track of the album is named “Alone” in the pop genre. In his livestream, Jimin confessed that this song was difficult for him to write because he had to let out all these personal feelings that were hidden. He said while writing this track he let out his worries and concerns for himself about how he was afraid of the world and being left alone in the crowd. This song had a darker approach while dealing with all the feelings that were suppressed inside.
We all feel this certain type of emotion in our life and Jimin is no exception. He felt lost when he was alone at home and thought the world was going forward and everyone was working hard and he felt alone and these feelings were depressing but he accepted these feelings, and let them out in this song for everyone to listen and know that sometimes in life these kind of feelings will capture our mind but we need to accept it and move forward without comparing ourselves and without pretending to be OK when we are not.
“Set me free part 2” – a very different side of our joyful Jimin was shown with this song. He showed us a glimpse of his rapper self in this song. This was the first single and the fifth track of this album. This song is about setting free from the shackles of typical stereotypes. “Now set me free” – as Jimin sang these lyrics while powerfully hitting an impressive high note, he practically demanded his freedom, which he will achieve no matter what.
The past self of Jimin was undoubtedly the best, but the new Jimin that he is introducing to us will be a different kind of best, because he is growing as an artist and he will change in that process but that will not take away the past. So he wanted us to remember the past and accept the present and set everything free, and make room for the new and better things. This song is a powerful declaration for freedom with an energetic beat.
The hidden track “Letter,” which is the seventh and final track of this album is a confession of love and gratitude for his fans who are called Army. As a fan of BTS and as a fan of Jimin, this song is very special to us. The pure and heartfelt lyrics mixed with Jimin’s angelic voice makes the song more special. This song is a letter to Army from jimin that he turned into a very precious song. Jungkook was also featured in this song.
Through this album, Jimin tried to show his reflection in an unfamiliar appearance, facing the deepest part of inner self. This album is a new part of Jimin’s life. It shows the troubledness of modern life, conflict of inner-self, and the urge to break free from all the barriers and the desires of a human. With this album, Jimin was able to show us his new appearance as an artist and he took on some new challenges with this and most importantly, with this album, he was able to astonish us completely.
