Every BTS album, ranked

Dark and Wild may have come in at last on this list, but overall, it was a strong showing for the group's first full-length album.It bears the hip-hop style that dominated their early single albums and EPs, driven by a rap line — RM, J-Hope, and Suga — that could spit solid bars from the get-go.Dark and Wild isn't nearly as cohesive nor polished as the group's later albums, and doesn't quite have their heart.But, it's a wild ride through and through: while dominated by passionate tracks like Danger to flirtatious cuts like War of Hormone or Look Here, there's still a sense of balance on the album.Tracks like Let Me Know and Rain, which lean more towards melancholy, are two of the best songs on the album and standouts even in BTS's wide discography.Ultimately, Dark & Wild doesn't bear the same kind of thematic resonance present in many of BTS' later works. The group waxes poetic about love troubles in one track and reflects on their hip-hop influences in the next, and certain tracks like Could You Turn Off Your Cellphone fit the album's groove but aren't as strong lyrically.While Dark & Wild is a diverse set of angst-driven bops, it doesn't quite measure up to its successors.Best songs: Intro: What Am I To You, Danger, Let Me Know, Rain, Look HereWorst songs: Could You Turn Off Your Cellphone, 24/7=HeavenLove Yourself: Tear is a middle installment of BTS' Love Yourself series, and is primarily concerned with the darker sides of love. A tight, 11-song package, Tear is one of the group's shortest studio albums, and it puts the brevity to use.Despite some impressive genre-shifting over the course of the album, the sequencing is impeccable. It starts with V's simmering neo-soul introduction, Singularity, before launching into the primary single Fake Love, which laments the trials of trying to change yourself for love.From there, Tear picks up the pieces, sinking into the vocal depths of Steve Aoki-produced The Truth Untold and embarking on a pop journey that culminates in the rap line's explosive Outro: Tear.Compared to some of the group's deepest dives like Map of the Soul: 7 or Wings though, Love Yourself: Tear isn't quite as ambitious or elaborate, nor did it represent a profound shift in their career like The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever. Still, as a standalone album, it's a tight product with few low points — even its worst song, the anthemic So What is more than capable of holding its own.Best songs: Fake Love, The Truth Untold, Paradise, Outro: TearWorst songs: So WhatThe fact that Map of the Soul: 7 falls in the lower half of this list is a testament to how ridiculously stacked BTS' discography is.Prior to Be, Map of the Soul: 7 was marked as the group's most personal album, leveraging Jungian psychology to examine the self. Using selections from their 2019 EP Map of the Soul: Persona as a five-track introduction, 7 is a wild journey that doesn't feel quite as cohesive as some of the group's other albums.However, it does have some of the group's best tracks to date.Lead single Black Swan is shockingly candid, grappling with the members' fear of a first death from falling out of love with music. The album's solo tracks, particularly Jimin's simmering Filter and Jin's lush, affectionate Moon, are some of the best across the group's discography.More than anything though, Map of the Soul: 7 feels like a bridge between the group and their passionate fans, ARMY, offering glimpses into the members' fears, joys, and memories.It's also a reward for longtime listeners of their music: in examining their identity, BTS samples tracks from their earliest years, repurposing them in RM's Intro: Persona, Suga's Interlude: Shadow, and J-Hope's Outro: Ego. The Halsey-assisted Boy With Luv and ON are inversions of the group's 2013 single Boy In Luv and 2014 single N.O, respectively.While there aren't any truly bad songs on Map of the Soul: 7 (perhaps with the exception of the version of ON featuring Sia), it lacks the cohesion and dramatic arc of some of the group's earlier albums. In a discography like BTS', that matters.Best songs: Intro: Persona, Black Swan, Filter, Moon, Respect, Outro: EgoWorst songs: Louder Than Bombs, ON (feat. Sia)Wings took BTS to an entirely new level, winning the group their first daesang — one of the highest awards at a music awards show — with album of the year at the 2016 Melon Music Awards (the group also won artist of the year at 2016's Mnet Asian Music Awards).Thematically, it draws influences from texts like Demian by Herman Hesse. Musically, it's a triumph that lives up to the soaring promise of its title.For the first (but not the last) time in BTS' discography, all seven members have a solo track on the album. Together they paint a cohesive picture, giving Wings one of the most poignant emotional arcs in their catalog.Kicking off with Jungkook's Begin, the solo descends through Jimin's dramatic Lie, V's anguished Stigma, and Suga's reflective First Love before landing at RM's Reflection, in which the rapper speaks about feeling isolated and struggling with self-love.J-Hope's euphoric Mama brings back the sun, building to the emotional climax of Jin's strings-backed Awake.The album repackage, You Never Walk Alone, delivers Spring Day, one of the group's most beloved singles (which references Ursula Le Guin's short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas) as well as the bombastic Not Today.If I was forced to pick the worst songs, it'd have to be the politically-charged Am I Wrong and 21st Century Girl, which would feel right at home in the group's Most Beautiful Moment In Life era but don't fully align with the rest of the album.Best songs: Blood Sweat & Tears, Stigma, First Love, MAMA, Awake, 2! 3!, Spring DayWorst songs: Am I Wrong, 21st Century GirlA massive repackage album comprised of selections from Love Yourself: Her and Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Answer brings in nine new tracks (plus four remixes). It remains one of the group's biggest pop triumphs. The conclusion of the trilogy focusing on various kinds of love, Answer thematically ties the series together through another full set of solo tracks and Idol, a self-love anthem that had stadiums of people yelling you can't stop me loving myself.Jungkook's Euphoria is pure production ear candy, while RM's Trivia: Love uses wordplay on the Korean words for person (saram) and love (sarang) to express how someone you love can erode all [your] edges. Suga's Trivia: Seesaw shows off the rapper's considerable vocal skill, and Jin's Epiphany is an overwhelming wave of self-acceptance.Listening through Answer is an exhilarating, but not fully unified, experience.As a compilation album, its first 16 tracks have a definite arc that encompasses the new tracks, while the following is a collection of some of the group's iconic b-sides from Her and Tear. Remixes, including the jarring DNA (Pedal 2 LA Mix), round out the album.Still, it's hard to not let the album's heady emotions wash over you as it transitions between songs about infatuation, dark love, and self-confidence.Best songs: Euphoria, Trivia: Love, Her, Trivia: Seesaw, EpiphanyWorst songs: DNA (Pedal 2 LA Mix)Be is an album that was designed to bring reassurance and hope to a world still suffering from a pandemic.On it, BTS commiserate, lament, reassure, celebrate, and reflect on their lives during quarantine, bringing nuance, candor, and comfort to listeners in a way that comes off as painfully understanding rather than condescending.From the album's first track Life Goes On, the guys position themselves as people in their 20s who are just living through all of this too. In the music video, there's a shot of the Seoul Olympic Stadium, where the group would have kicked off their 2020 tour. It's a subtle symbol of how the pandemic has affected them as well.Be explores the mundanity of quarantine life, from the disorienting but comforting experience of spending time at home in Fly To My Room to the impulse to overwork in explosive hip-hop track Dis-ease.Separated by a skit in which the members discuss their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with Dynamite, its two halves are complementary with the hip-hop, disco, and EDM flavors of the second balancing the softer instrumentation of the first.What makes Be so remarkable, however, is that it epitomizes the honesty and empathy that's pervasive within BTS' discography.The seven members were each intimately involved with the development of this album and livestreamed their creative process throughout, with RM saying at a pre-release press conference that it felt like the group had made this album together with the fans.It doesn't necessarily reach the anthemic heights of BTS' Most Beautiful Moment in Life undertaking, but Be is their most candid, empathetic album yet.It doesn't have any skips, but the carefree Dynamite doesn't fully stack up to the introspection of the other tracks.Best songs: Life Goes On, Blue & Grey, Dis-easeWorst songs: DynamiteThe Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever, which encapsulates selections from the group's Most Beautiful Moment in Life EPs as well as several new tracks, represented a watershed moment in BTS' career, including the group's first Korean music show win.It also set a precedent for the kind of music they would continue making throughout the remainder of the decade.Young Forever runs the full gamut of youthful, emotional expression, from the urgent desperation of singles I Need U and Run to the melancholy of Autumn Leaves. Each song on the album taps into a different facet of the youthful, emotional expression, translating the personal into the relatable. Miraculously, the album's almost-chaotic mix of emotion comes together in a cohesive project that encapsulates one of the most defining musical eras of the group's career.Multifaceted as it is, none of its tracks should really be passed over, although the alternative mixes of both Run and Butterfly are both unnecessary iterations on nigh-perfect tracks.Overall, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever still feels utterly timeless even four years after its release.Even as the members have grown up (with their fans alongside them), the youthful focus of their earliest music stands the test of time.Best songs: I Need U, Run, Ma City, Silver Spoon, Save Me, Moving On, ButterflyWorst songs: Run (Alternative Mix), Butterfly (Alternative Mix)Read more:15 details you may have missed in BTS's 'Dynamite' music videoBTS is one of the biggest music sensations in history. Here's a look back on their meteoric rise to stardom.'Dynamite' is BTS's first song entirely in English, but that doesn't mean the group is giving up their K-pop identityWatch BTS's 2020 speech at the United Nations General Assembly

Every BTS album, ranked

7. BTS's first studio album "Dark & Wild" is full of spirit, but isn't quite as cohesive or deep-cutting as later releases.

6. BTS dove into the darker sides of love on "Love Yourself: Tear," one of the group's shortest studio albums.

5. "Map of the Soul: 7" is introspective and full of references to the group's old music, but isn't quite as coherent as other releases.

4. "Wings" and its repackage album "You Never Walk Alone" brought BTS's thematic focus to new heights.

3. "Love Yourself: Answer" is a tome that encapsulates all varieties of love.

2. "Be" is a refreshingly candid pandemic album done right.

1. "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever" is a timeless capsule about what it means to be young.