Album Review: Right Person Wrong Time by RM

RM showcases newfound clarity and confidence in this best-yet album that pulses with urgency and drive

One of the most poignant things that emerged during BTS’s hiatus announcement in 2022 was the creative exhaustion the members expressed. Rapper and producer Suga admitted that by the end there he found more creative inspiration in writing ringtones for Samsung than he did writing new material for BTS. Not good! Some members clearly had new sides to their musicality they wanted to explore outside of BTS. Some members had trauma they needed to work through on their own. But it seemed that leader RM didn’t fit into either of those categories. Perhaps more than any other member, he just desperately needed a break.

In recent years, there has been a trend to have at least one native English speaker in each Kpop group, but in BTS, there was only RM’s English, mostly self-taught via episodes of Friends and supplemented by a few months of school in New Zealand at age 12. RM frequently found himself in the role of spokesperson and translator for the group when they were on long stretches of promotion outside Korea. His English is very good but he’s not a native speaker, and what’s more, as a rapper I’m sure he absorbed a lot of English via listening to American rap artists.

Especially in more recent years, the influence of American rap styles and flow became very obvious in RM’s English speaking style and rapping style. Of course, Black American culture and musical styles are a huge influence in Kpop to begin with. I guess what I’m trying to say is that most of RM’s solo work and even his more recent verses in BTS songs felt to me like he was doing an approximation of what he thought rapping in English should sound like rather than him feeling comfortable in his own style.

Listen, RM is a smart, thoughtful guy. He can write lyrics that play on words between two languages at the same time. He loves art, he loves music. He runs lyrics about women past a gender studies professor. Even if I didn’t enjoy Indigo, it was hugely critically acclaimed and featured collaborations with hugely important and respected artists from Korea (Tablo) and America (Erykah Badu, Anderson .Paak).

So I picked up his surprise new album Right Place, Wrong Person out of a sense of responsibility to you, reader, but not a lot of excitement. And I was shocked, SHOCKED, to find that RM has found a voice and sound and delivery that is fresh and new and completely his own. He delivers English lines with newfound clarity and confidence. In out of love he tells us he’s been changing up his flow and the effect of that work is obvious and appreciated.

In both Indigo and Right Place, Wrong Person, we frequently find RM rapping over live instruments rather than produced beats (is that right? that’s what it sounds like to me!). But where Indigo relaxed in golden toned indie vibes, Right Place, Wrong Person pulses with psychedelic urgency and drive. A relationship gone bad, disillusionment, isolation and insecurity are the themes underpinning most of the record.

Let’s dive in. You know that game you can play where you repeat the same word over and over until it becomes gibberish and loses all meaning in your mind? It feels like that’s what RM is doing in the psychedelic intro “Right People, Wrong Place.” It’s how you explain away a failed relationship, right? Right person, wrong time. Right person, wrong place. But if you repeat it over and over and over it loses all meaning and makes no sense and maybe you realize in face it was the right place, wrong person (album title). I hear a “right woman, wrong place” thrown in there as well. And the interjection “get the fuck outta my sight?” And the “feeling high on a forest fire” feels like you are so high you don’t realize the fire is burning down the forest around you.

In Nuts, he begs her to stay, saying he could “make this [the] right place for her” while simultaneously coming to terms with the fact that perhaps he’s been gaslit and in a toxic relationship that was doomed to fail. He’s also surprisingly open about the sexuality of the relationship, calling her a “pro-rider.”

Moving on to out of love we get a classic 2024 popstar rant about their fans. From Ariana Grande’s “we can’t be friends” to Taylor Swift’s “I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing” we arrive at RM’s “Smoking kills, I know. It’s my business you bitches, stop. Don’t talk shit.” This is so petty but such a typical kpop controversy (your idol smoking! Shock horror!) and I love that he called it out.

But really, in out of love we find RM in the ashes of his relationship realizing that he feels like he also burned down his professional life: “After a dozen years, I can now feel the discomfort back again. I don’t belong here, poetry died and love was buried.” All over an unsettling flute played over a distorted grunge beat. Really cool stuff.

We then move from flute to clarinet (is this a new trend in Kpop? ATEEZ also featured a clarinet opener in their latest comeback) for album standout Domodachi (Japanese for friend), casually performed in three languages alongside UK rapper Little Simz who is excellent. Here RM shifts his angry gaze to his friends - are they real friends or are they just hanging around to benefit from RM’s fame?

BTS have frequently used interludes or clear breaks in their album to distinguish between two moods, so is that what RM is trying to accomplish on the next track ?(Interlude) featuring French-American jazz duo DOMi and JD Beck. The flute is back but much more playful as RM delivers one of the best lines in the album “I just hope you remember me, the best grave in your cemetery.” His feelings towards his negative experiences are still complicated - he’s torn between wishing it never happened, to wanting to be remembered, to just wishing for karma.

In Groin, RM angrily strikes out at the unrealistic expectations placed upon him, spitting “I can’t be a monk…not a fucking diplomat, now that life is a bit easier, they shove responsibilities onto me. What do I represent? I only represent myself. Before I die from anger, let’s say what I have to say.” There is a shoutout to friend and co-writer on a lot of this album, San Yawn, of the “alternative Kpop band” Balming Tiger, and this track definitely features the most alternative/punk sound. I think when RM is chanting “get your ass out the trunk” what he’s trying to do is taunt people who criticize him anonymously.

We mellow out on 70s tinged Heaven, where RM tells his naysayers - his critics, his fake friends, his ex - they can try to ruin his vibe and take his heaven, but he’s doing pretty well, actually, thanks. It’s a nice vocal feature from RM and the layered fuzzy vocal harmonies which give a sense of intoxication. This vibe makes sense, because in the next song (LOST!) we have RM hitting rock bottom. The song is deceptively cheerful, but RM’s lyrics are raw - he’s lonely, he’s confused, he’s drinking too much, he’s clubbing, he’s losing time.

Around the world in a day, featuring American artist Moses Sumney, is another album standout. This is an absolutely gorgeous moment of earned catharsis after a long journey through RM’s anger, heartbreak and frustrations. He’s not totally healed, but he’s moving on - “I’m gonna ride till the hate and love ain’t matter.”

Lead single off of this album, Come back to me, which was accompanied by a six minute music video directed by the director of Netflix’s Beef, concludes the album. It extends the catharsis of Around the world in a day, arriving at a point of even more peace. Even if he still misses his ex and wants her to come back, he’s good. I think he’s also, in a way, grateful for the pain he experienced because it gave him the inspiration for this divine project - you are my pain, divine, divine.

In a livestream he did last year, RM shared that he had postponed his military enlistment date to work on a project that he was really excited about. This album was SO worth it. This is the best album to come out of Kpop this year, and one of the best albums of the year period.

5/5 stars - essential listening!