All 14 tracks of BTS’ Arirang land on Spotify’s daily top songs global chart

In this monthly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music released in the past month.

Chart Champ: BTS – Arirang

BTS’ first full-length album in six years has been setting records since its March 20 release. Within days, all its 14 tracks took the top 14 spots on Spotify’s daily top songs global chart, a record for a K-pop act. (Lead single Swim is at No. 1 and Body To Body is in second place.)

It is a feat last achieved in 2025 by American superstar Taylor Swift, with her 12-track album The Life Of A Showgirl.

Within 24 hours of release, Arirang also sold some four million copies, the highest first-day sales to date for the K-pop boy band. This exceeds the 3.37 million copies their previous album Map Of The Soul: 7 (2020) sold in its first week.

In addition, Arirang has topped iTunes’ Top Albums charts in 88 countries and regions, including Italy, Mexico and Sweden, according to BTS’ agency BigHit Music.

All this is unsurprising, given the massive size of Army (BTS’ fandom name) and the group’s nearly four-year hiatus due to mandatory military service enlistment.

Indeed, moving forward is a theme in Swim, a heady cocktail of motifs like overcoming obstacles and diving headfirst into the future. And the familiar theme of staying true to oneself comes across in the vulnerable and reflective Normal, and in rap numbers such as Aliens.

The septet’s rappers RM, Suga and J-Hope also have many chances here to shine.

For better or worse, BTS appear to be gravitating towards a more mature style of hip-hop, away from disco-pop favourites such as Dynamite (2020) and Butter (2021), which catapulted them to global superstardom. – Benson Ang

Ace Album: Harry Styles – Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally

If you go into British singer-songwriter Harry Styles’ new album expecting it to be full of pop bangers a la his previous album Harry’s House (2022), you will be sorely disappointed.

With Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, Styles favours musical textures and vibes over easy melodies and catchy choruses.

Early single Aperture, released in January, had set the tone with its layered, downtempo electronic rhythms, and most of the album does not stray too far from the laid-back mood.

The lyrics reflect the after-hours mood of the album. Tracks like Are You Listening Yet? and Taste Back read like late-night, introspective thoughts that run through a sleepless mind.

Tunes like Dance No More, with its melancholic lyrics paired with synth-pop and techno beats, provide catharsis on the dance floor.

The album, released on March 6, is a global hit that went to No. 1 in 20 countries. On the US Billboard charts, it is his fourth consecutive solo album to hit pole position. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Stream This Song: Olivia Rodrigo – The Book Of Love

Help(2), the charity album by non-government organisation War Child that raises funds for children living through war, has plenty of emotionally resonant tunes by some of today’s top pop and indie artistes.

One of the standouts is American pop singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo’s rendition of The Book Of Love, an indie classic originally released in 1999 by American band The Magnetic Fields.

Her first new release in two years, Rodrigo's tender and introspective delivery is quite a contrast to the arena-sized pop tunes like good 4 u (2021) that she is known for.

The song also has a striking music video filmed by children in the war-torn areas of Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen.

Besides Rodrigo, the other acts in Help(2) are a mix of both seasoned names (English bands Oasis, Depeche Mode and Arctic Monkeys) and the contemporary (Filipina-British singer Beabadoobee, Irish band Fontaines D.C. and British band The Last Dinner Party). – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Must-See MV: Gorillaz – The Mountain, The Moon Cave And The Sad God

This animated short film is a visual companion to virtual band Gorillaz’s ninth album, The Mountain, and is an amalgamation of three of its songs – the title track, The Moon Cave and The Sad God.

In the age of artificial-intelligence slop, the video stands out with its hand-drawn aesthetics, reminiscent of 1960s Disney classics such as The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians.

Directed by Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, who collaborated with London-based animation studio The Line, it features lush, hand-painted watercolour backgrounds and rough, sketchy pencil lines.

The plot sees Gorillaz’s animated members 2-D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle undergo surreal encounters as they trek through an Indian landscape. A rumination on life, death and the afterlife, it is inspired by the death of the fathers of both of the group’s British creators, Hewlett and Damon Albarn.

Besides Albarn, the music in the video features an illustrious cast that includes British-American sitar player Anoushka Shankar and American rapper Black Thought. There is also a spoken word segment by late American actor Dennis Hopper. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Singapore Scene: The Pinholes – Kisah Musim Raya

Kisah Musim Raya (A Raya Tale), a Hari Raya short film that is part of gov.sg’s 2026 festive film series, features a soundtrack by home-grown rock ’n’ roll band The Pinholes.

Gov.sg is the official digital communications platform of the Singapore Government.

The hook-laden, bubblegum pop tune harks back to music made in the 1960s, and the band make a cameo in the film, performing as themselves in what looks like the living room of an HDB flat.

The band sing in Malay of Aisyah, played by home-grown actress Nur Sabrina Nasir, a young woman whose Hari Raya celebration is almost derailed due to her obsession with her smartphone. The film also features award-winning local actors Siti Hajar and Izzat Yusoff as her parents.

On YouTube, the video gained more than one million views less than a week after it was launched on March 13.

It is not the only new Hari Raya song by the quartet fronted by singer-songwriter Famie Suliman. On March 18, The Pinholes released Biar Sederhana (Let It Be Simple), another retro-rock ode to the festive season. – Eddino Abdul Hadi