Hi everyone!
Today, I’ll be reviewing RM’s ‘forever rain’ and let me just say, I’ve been incredibly excited to write up a post for this track. It’s obvious that lyrics play an important role in my opinion of the song, and RM typically has lyrics that are worth having a conversation about. He’s poetic and reflective, a feature I genuinely look forward to whenever I listen to his music. But before getting into my admiration for the guy and this track, let’s go into some background.
RM, a.k.a Kim Namjoon, is the 24 year old leader of the seven member boy group, BTS. He is the most involved of the members in terms of musical contribution, having over 100 songs linked to his name. Aside from doing the main songwriting and composing for BTS, RM has released solo works and collaborations, and his style is notably different from the overall BTS sound. RM’s individual pieces cater more to his personal image and taste, mixing mellow and introspective tracks with those containing hard-hitting rap meant to pump someone up rather than sit in deep reflection.
His first mixtape, RM, was released back in 2015, and after an eventful three years, the artist has given us mono, a mixtape showcasing RM’s maturation from his 2015 year old self and allowing for a more intimate peek at the workings of his mind. The seven track release has a consistent theme of loneliness, its tunes carrying vibes of calm yearning and sadness, yet it somehow possesses a soothing effect. RM refers to it as more of a playlist, and it’s been the first one up for a commercial release.
I could go on about RM and just his works alone, but before I get too carried away, let’s dive into the review.
Lyrics
Wistful. That’s the best way to sum up the message of this song. From the very first line, RM expresses his desire to have someone care about him, for someone to reach out to him and give him a safe haven, because all he seems to get from others is judgment. As an artist and a K-Pop group leader, RM has conveyed this emotion before, the fear of constantly being judged by others and criticized, which ‘forever rain’ elaborates on.
When it rains, he feels a sense of protection—it’s his shelter, in a way, hiding him from the opinions of others since people are under umbrellas and minding their own business on such gloomy days. He yearns for the rain for the feeling it gives him, the feeling that someone is crying for him and sensing his pain, the feeling that he doesn’t need to keep running. RM wants to slow down, breathe slowly, walk slowly, think slowly, because all he does in his day to day life is run around. It’s non-stop, with little time for introspection, but those moments of self-reflection are what comfort RM, and that’s what he finds in the rain.
But it isn’t that he wishes to be alone. It almost sounds like RM yearns for a friend to confide his inner thoughts to, the implications coming from lyrics such as “when it rains I get a little feeling that I do have a friend” and I’m not lonely when you’re pouring”. These lines are powerful, because having spent several years in the public eye, it must be difficult for RM to find that balance between being himself and being what the masses want him to be. He may often feel that he has to behave one way to get the love and approval of others, so when he really wants to sit down and discuss thoughts that Kim Namjoon (rather than RM) has, he finds that there’s not as many people around. So he confides in the rain, which asks him how he is as it slides down his window, and he replies with an answer that allows his fans a glimpse at how dark his inner thoughts can really be.
Despite the massive successes RM and BTS have been experiencing lately, the artist is still prone to depression and sadness, which isn’t unusual by any means. After all, he’s still very human, and I think that’s what this song is about. It serves as a reminder to his fans (and the world) that he is painfully human, and he feels crestfallen, depressed, and alone, regardless of his achievements. With heart-wrenching lines such as “I don’t live because I can’t die, but I’m chained to something” and “Would someone welcome me, maybe embrace my weary body”, RM puts his exhaustion out there. He wants the rain to last forever, even though he knows that nothing is forever, because rain is the only friend that gives him solace. Having nobody around to hold him in his fatigued state, he turns to the rain, and instead, pours his heart out there. The reality of his loneliness is heartbreaking, and to put out a track that demonstrates his vulnerability is pretty brave, in my opinion.
K-Pop often markets their musicians as perfect people without any problems whatsoever, but it’s far from that. Underneath the industry’s glittery veil of big budget music videos, synchronized dance moves, and high fashion lie darknesses like those of RM. But these artists don’t talk about it as often to protect their image, and that is why I applaud RM for stepping out once again and allowing the world, the industry, and his own fans to see that he’s as human as can be. He feels pain, emptiness, loneliness, and lethargy just like any ordinary person might, allowing his audiences to connect to him on a deep and personal level. It goes to show that success by no means can buy happiness, and I think that’s RM’s personal battle. He’s hugely successful and within this, he walks forward to find a balance between work and play in a way that will leave him with more smiles than tears.
Aesthetics
There’s not as much to talk about with the aesthetics of this music video as it’s very raw and stripped back. There’s no sparkle factor, and rightfully so. Given the subject matter, I think it’d be rather unfitting to have a big dance number in over the top outfits. But the color scheme fits the theme of the mixtape, with the monochromatic animations adding another layer of depth to the song.
The art style is interesting, straying far from being cute or adorable. Rather, the texture of it does a good job of emphasizing flaws. It’s not meant to highlight the beauty of humanity at all; people are drawn as deformed, with the protagonist being faceless and subdued. My interpretation is that he talks about how rain hides his sad face, so he’s drawn without facial features as a result of that, while the other people are shown as monsters—not because they’re ugly, but because of their judgments of him, how he views them. People who care to do more harm than good hiding under their umbrellas.
I love how simple yet entirely complex the whole video is, and I recommend watching it with the closed captions on. It’s artistic, creative, and beautifully fitting for the concept of the song in a sad way.
Sound
The piano intro paired with the slow ticking of the clock does a brilliant job setting up the atmosphere of the song. It prepares the listener for a song that’s more on the gentler side of RM’s music. As RM quietly takes us through the song with rap that’s slow and steady, we can sense that this is a song with far deeper meaning than others without having to look up the lyrics. The piano comes and goes throughout the whole song, always present for the chorus, its melancholy notes providing a backbone for the piece. In the chorus and bridge, a guitar is added to RM’s faded vocals to further amplify those feelings of loneliness and yearning, which it successfully does.
The song is ideal for listening to on a rainy day, and it honestly gives something to connect to when anyone is experiencing those moments of sadness and they want to feel less alone in their struggles. It’s beautiful and raw, and I’m really proud of RM for talking about issues that he faces rather than maintaining a facade where he pretends that he’s always okay when he truly isn’t.
I love this song so much, and I love the rest of the mixtape as well. My favorite tracks thus far are ‘tokyo’ and ‘forever rain’, but I need to give it more listens to see if other ones stand out to me. It’s also really cool that RM’s been releasing lyric videos to accompany the songs; I totally recommend checking those out.
Next time, I’ll review Lay’s ‘NAMANANA’ and if you have any recommendations, let me know. Thanks for reading!
—Zephyr
Musical Musings 