BTS's new album Map Of The Soul: Persona opens on a question easier asked than answered: "Who the hell am I?" Since debuting in 2013, the South Korean boy band have worked their way to becoming inarguably the biggest band in the world, and at least part of their success has hinged on that very question. Who are BTS? Those in their massive fanbase (dubbed the BTS Army) seem to know everything. Those outside of it don't even know where to begin. Persona is as good a place as any to start.

ADVERTISEMENT

The record gets its name from Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, a 1998 book on Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung by Dr. Murray Stein (copies of which are available via the band's online store). Jung, who once wrote about "the danger" in people "becoming identical with their personas — the professor with his textbook, the tenor with his voice" provides an intriguing framework for the boys to work with: sophisticated enough to suggest a higher meaning, yet inclusive enough to encompass really anything BTS sing about.

Persona is at its best when it aims broad. The record blasts off with an identity-questioning rap from group leader RM, backed by scrunchy, Warped Tour-ready guitars Dated? Perhaps. Fun? Absolutely. More than anything, it's a worthy pregame for the two knockouts that follow: lead single "Boy With Luv" and "Mikrokosmos," the latter of which sounds like if Oneohtrix Point Never produced old school Madonna.