Love Yourself 承 'Her' (stylized as LOVE YOURSELF 承 'Her') is the fifth extended play by South Korean boy group BTS. The EP was released on September 18, 2017, by Big Hit Entertainment. The album was released in four versions and contains nine tracks, with "DNA" as its lead single.
Background
Love Yourself 承 'Her' is the first album to be released since BTS revealed their new "brand identity" on July 4, 2017, complete with a new, simplified logo.[1] On September 18, the album was released alongside the music video for its title track, "DNA".[2] In the 24 hours after release, the "DNA" music video had been viewed 21 million times, becoming the first K-pop group music video to reach over 20 million views in 24 hours.[3]
Commercial performance
During the period of August 25 to 31, there were 1,051,546 stock pre-orders, making BTS the first K-pop group to reach more than one million pre-orders.[4]
Love Yourself 承 'Her' debuted at number one in Korea on the Gaon Album Chart,[5] while "DNA" debuted at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart, with all tracks from the digital EP also placing in the top 40 of the chart.[6] The EP opened at number seven on the US Billboard 200, making it the highest-charting K-pop album on the chart and biggest sales week of a K-pop album until the release of BTS' own Love Yourself: Tear in 2018.[7][8] It achieved 31,000 album-equivalent units, of which 18,000 were in pure album sales.[7] This made BTS the first Asian artist in seven years to debut within the top ten of the chart, surpassing the record set by Filipino singer Charice with her eponymous American debut album, which debuted at number eight in 2010.[9] On October 7, 2017, BTS made their debut on the UK Albums Chart with the EP, peaking at number 14.[10]
According to the monthly Gaon Album Chart released on October 14, Love Yourself 承 'Her' was the highest-selling release of September 2017, with 1,203,533 copies sold since its release on September 18. The album also has the second highest monthly sales in the history of the Gaon Chart,[11] and the first in 16 years to exceed 1.2 million copies sold since g.o.d's fourth album Chapter 4, which was released in November 2001.[12][13]Love Yourself 承 'Her' eventually became BTS' highest-selling album, overtaking their 2016 LP Wings, as well as becoming the best selling album in the history of the Gaon Chart with over 1.61 million copies sold as of March 2018.[14][15]On August 2019, the album reached 2 million copies in South Korea along with Love Yourself: Tear, surpassed its successor Love Yourself: Tear in nearly 16,000 copies difference.
The album won the grand prize at the 32nd Golden Disc Awards in the Physical Category on January 11, 2018.[16]
After debuting at number two on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart, the EP moved to number one in its second week.[17]
The album has remained on the Billboard 200 for twenty-seven weeks, the only Korean album to do so.[18]Seventeen magazine called it one of "The 8 Best Albums of 2017 So Far."[19]
Billboard writer Tamar Herman described the EP as "a dual exploration of the group's electro-pop and hip-hop leanings", with the first half consisting of “dance tracks that emphasize the group's vocals" while in the second half "the act's hip-hop side arrives in earnest...delivering powerful rap performances."[32] Viri Garcia of The Cornell Daily Sun commended BTS for "trying to achieve a sound closer to pop while keeping their own signature sounds" and succeeding in creating a "masterpiece full of emotion and musicality that can't be paralleled by any American or Korean act."[33] However, Monique Melendez from Spin summarized the album as "thematically confident in its separate halves but musically disparate", with the group refusing to compromise on a specific musical direction. Melendez further commented that Love Yourself 承 'Her' came up short compared to BTS' past works, such as Wings and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 and Part 2, in which "visuals, lyrics, and sounds united under fully-realized concepts."[34]
The EP's lead single "DNA" was featured on Vulture as one of the "8 Best New Songs of the Week", describing the track as the "sound of a boy band headed in a new direction plotted for crossover domination“ and one that "recategorizes BTS by shrugging off genre entirely."[35]The New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica wrote that while BTS' music often exhibits the “flamboyance and sometimes manic energy" that is characteristic of K-pop, Love Yourself 承 'Her' takes a remarkably "tranquil approach” to the genre through side tracks such as "Pied Piper", which he described as "a slow disco number that's emphatic in its relaxation." Caramanica additionally highlighted "Outro: Her" as a track with a hip hop beat that is "lush with instrumentation, and moves with a casual saunter reminiscent of the mid 1990s."[36] Tamar Herman also offered praises for the lyrical delivery of "Pied Piper", and stated, "A take on K-pop's rampant and highly profitable fan culture, 'Pied Piper,' is BTS doing what they do best: addressing a societal problem through their jaunty music." Herman called the track "BTS' most subversive song of their career."[37]
Track listing
The credits are adapted from the official album profile on Naver.[38]
^Cho, Yoo-sun (June 8, 2018). "역시 방탄소년단!…14일 만에 166만장 돌파 '大기록'" [Also BTS!… 16.6 million in 14 days Breakthrough 'Great record']. Sports Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved June 8, 2018.
