Song Review:: J-Hope (BTS): Mona Lisa

• Release date: 2025 March 21

• Album tracklist: Mona Lisa

• Album runtime: 2 minutes

 I still need someone to let me know how to properly capitalize and punctuate his name. I apologize for the lateness of this review. I am working through my draft list. And because I wasn't aware of the release until after the fact, it got put in the drafts list. But, let's see how this goes. Also, that run time barely makes this a song, and I'm once again deeply frustrated with HYBE. 

This is a pretty mellow hip-hop track going on here. It's chill and rolling through the song with the steadiness of a perfectly smooth marble on a ramp at a slight incline that occasionally levels out to prevent the marble from picking up too much speed. But it's too short to really get any traction going and so it's just perpetually steady without flare or bombast.

He's clearly got a good voice, but I'm not seeing that this song is showing it off all that well. I listened to this song about three times in a row, and then I had to step away and do something else. When I came back, I realized that I couldn't remember the song. Which is a little bit of a problem and I'm worried that this song was designed to be one to be looped in the background, good for streams (especially with how short it is) but not necessarily good for longevity. He's a member of BTS. I expect statement pieces, if not a song that has something bold and impressive, something prominent to hinge the rest of the song on. And it's practically a crime because (after having listened to it again) he's got some great texture here, but it's weakened by the supporting instrumentals.

The music video is thirty seconds longer than the track itself and it still doesn't hit three minutes.

First thing, he's clearly having oodles of fun with this, and I love that for him. Second, he's got sparkly pants on and the best part is you don't even get that tidbit of information, until you're almost through the song and the lighting and angles shift. The ending did make me snort because I thought the playing was cute.