Are BTS Getting Ready to Drop A New Album? A Brief Investigation

Buckle up, everyone: the biggest group on the planet seems to be gearing up for a new release.

BTS may not have dropped a full-length album in 2021, but that hasn’t stopped them from breaking records and dominating the charts with their two singles, “Butter” and “Permission to Dance.” The Bangtan Boys have been a bit quiet lately — and sure, that could be because they just wrapped their Permission to Dance online concert, or because they’re preparing for their upcoming stint at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

This is the longest break BTS has ever taken between albums as the one-year mark approaches since the release of the tender, pandemic-era BE. Early 2020 also included the massive release of Map of the Soul: 7, so it’s been a while since fans had a full album to unpack. ARMY has been buzzing with rumors about the possibility an early 2022 album, and, while nothing has been confirmed yet, a major hint about new music dropped on Friday (November 5th).

Each Friday, Weverse (the proprietary content platform for BTS’ label, HYBE), airs a program called In the Soop, a reality-style look at the members of BTS enjoying their time together. “Soop” in Korean translates to forest, and the show sees BTS at the equivalent of a vacation home in the mountains. The highest the stakes get is when it comes to conversations about what to cook for dinner. It’s a sweet, healing program that probably deserves Emmy awards, but that’s a conversation for another time.

Last week’s episode featured a look at members Jungkook and SUGA working on new music together before being joined by RM. “I want this to be a good performance song,” SUGA, the group’s built-in producer, said. (Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but perhaps touring is on the mind?

“It’s my first time writing something in nature,” said Jungkook. “I wrote so much here last year,” SUGA replied, referring to the origin of the group’s bouncy “Telepathy.”

Background music drowned out any indicator of what the song could sound like, but the caption writers came through. The subtitles read: “The next album, created by these seven men — what will it be like?” We would love to know, Weverse!