[Album Review] Layover (1st Mini Album) – V (BTS)

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First album review of the year belongs to V, who made his solo debut back in September with the mini-album Layover. Today, I will finally be reviewing that mini-album release. The R&B dominant mini-album consists of 6 tracks in total, including the title track Slow Dancing and piano version of the title track. And all other tracks, whether it was a pre-release (i.e., Love Me Again or Rainy Days) or not, has an accompanying music video. Unfortunately, time does not permit me to review all of the side tracks separately, so I have linked the music video down below in place of the usual audio videos I get from YouTube. With that little housekeeping out of the way, let’s move forward with the album review for Layover.

1. Rainy Days (Pre-Release Track) – Starting off the mini-album is Rainy Days, which is a stunning song. The standout element of Rainy Days that I personally enjoyed has to be his vocals, which were very clear and comforting. I particularly like the deeper tone V takes in the second verse. It was unexpected, and adds some depth to the song. I also felt like I was drifting away with the melodies in Rainy Days. Finally, the R&B instrumentation was quite stilling and the rain sounds in the background felt just right. (9/10)

2. Blue – Blue features an old school form of R&B. While V’s husky vocals come into play and does appeal to me, I find the smoothness of the melodies in the chorus to be the more memorable element of Blue. The slightness of his vocals and the simplistic title repetition that makes up the chorus were also strong aspects of this song. (8/10)

3. Love Me Again – Click here for the full review for Love Me Again. (7/10)

4. Slow Dancing (Title Track) – Click here for the full review for Slow Dancing. (7/10)

5. For Us – For Us is probably the most dynamic R&B track of the album. It goes for alt-R&B vibes, with some cool synth work, fitting autotuned vocals in the first half. Mid-way, For Us has a slight change of pace following the sound of a tape change, which brings in nice piano and drumming in the latter half of the song. V, throughout For Us, continues to bring smoothness via his vocals. (9/10)