The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1

Background

On April 17, 2015, an animated comeback trailer portraying a boy playing basketball in a windy evening was released on YouTube, featuring Suga's rap. On April 19, 2015, Big Hit Entertainment released the name of their album as well as teaser photos of the boys on BTS's official Twitter account ahead of the group's comeback. On the 26th, BTS released an album preview, which confirmed that "I Need U" would be its title track. When the music video teaser was released on April 23, the hashtag "#INEEDU" trended worldwide on Twitter.

This is the first album where all of the members participated in either the production, composition, or lyric-writing of the songs. Despite the album's name expressing "the most beautiful moment in life", the band also wanted to express the anxieties and insecurities youth may face. In response to the studio album length of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1, Rap Monster and Suga explained that the group thinks every album as a full-length album, as the members want "to tell a lot of good stories".

In a Mwave interview, the group members mentioned they had spent more time working on "I Need U" than any other lead track on past albums: "We spent three to four times more working on 'I Need U' in comparison to other title songs. There are four different versions with the same beat. It′s a song that kept coming out with constant editing. We′ve put in that much effort and everyone is satisfied."

Promotions

BTS performed their comeback stage on April 30, 2015 on Mnet's M Countdown. The group went on to promote on music programs on MBC, SBS, ArirangTV and KBS, despite the fact that "Fun Boys" and "Converse High" were deemed unfit for broadcast for the KBS and the latter track deemed unfit by MBC. They won two music show awards on SBS's The Show, one award on Show Champion, one on M Countdown, and one on Music Bank, winning a total of 5 awards.

Music videos

The music video for "I Need U" was released on April 29, featuring the members acting out various depressing scenes rather than choreography. It reached 1 million views in 16 hours. The music video was cut to preserve its 15+ rating, but on May 10, the uncut, original version was released with a 19+ rating. On June 23, Big Hit Entertainment uploaded a music video of "Dope" for the band's follow-up promotions. It features the members dressed up as different occupations while dancing fast-paced choreography. The music video received 1 million views in less than 15 hours.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 2 on South Korea's Weekly Gaon Albums Chart although it rose to number 1 the following week. It also debuted at number 2 on Billboard's World Albums Chart and peaked at 6 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. Singles from the album also debuted on Billboard's World Digital Songs, with "I Need U" ranked highest at number 4, followed by "Dope" (number 11), "Hold Me Tight" (number 12), "Boyz With Fun" (number 13), "Converse High" (number 15), and "Outro: Love is Not Over" (number 25). It was listed in June by Fuse as one of the "27 Best Albums of 2015 So Far". It was the only Korean album to do so. On July 11, "Dope" rose to its peak at number 3 on Billboard despite being released two months earlier.

The album debuted at number 24 on weekly Oricon charts and 45 on its monthly charts.

Reception

This album shows the growth of BTS maturing from boys to seven men. The past albums showcased the dreams, happiness, and love harbored by teens in a “three-part school series.” Having graduated from this series, BTS is stepping one foot closer to ‘youth'. In unraveling their stories of youth, their musicality spectrum has also broadened with the vocal line joining the rapper line in song compositions also. The album was also named by Fuse as on of the "24th best albums of 2015 so far". They stated that " When BTS hit the K-pop scene in 2013, they were an underdog boy band touring a hardcore hip hop sound that at times was too aggressive and at other times felt too weak. But with the release of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 1, the guys have created their most solid work to date and did so by finding a balance. The album's intro opens with a dreamy production as member Suga gives an Eminem-like rap performance while lead single "I Need U" opens with lush synthesizers and soft coos before moving into it's explosive chorus."

Variations

The mini-album was released with two versions: the pink version and the white version. Although there were no changes in the track list, the white version featured a different album cover, design of disk, and photo book. If the two covers of the fourth extended play was aligned on top the two covers for The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Part 1, all four covers create a full image of flower petals and butterflies.