Song Review:: Jin (BTS): ECHO- Don't Say You Love Me

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  • Release date: 2025 May 16
  • Album tracklist: Don't Say You Love Me; Nothing Without Your Love; Loser (feat. Yena); Rope It; With the Clouds; Background; To Me, Today
  • Album runtime: 20 minutes

 My mother has actually been pestering me a little about this song, which is funny because I've been working for months on her with BTS and she finally found a member she likes. Thinks his voice is gorgeous. Don't worry. I'll continue working on her. She may be a little stubborn, but I am just as stubborn and more patient. The album runtime is a lot better than I've been seeing out of HYBE, so I appreciate that even if it's under the three minute mark I want to be seeing. However, the title track song itself comes in at just three minutes, so it has successfully met my bare minimum!

Had to turn up my volume a little bit for this, which is fine. It does mean that this is an inherently quiet song. There isn't a whole lot of variation to the song, but considering how much of a breakup song this is, I'm less concerned than I would be otherwise, due to the connection between feeling like you're stuck and unable to move on and having an incredibly repetitious instrumental. There's also a section where that breaks, right after the first cycle of verse and chorus, and I initially was very invested in what I hoped would be a strong change, but I didn't get that. 

Vocally, this is another place where I wish we could get more, but thematically, I have to accept it because it's suitable. He really does have an excellent voice and it's so sweet and clear, which provides a definitively heart wrenching quality to the song. 

In the time honored tradition of sad breakup songs, we get a storyline that's as sad as the lyrics are! Everyone looks amazing. The director and cinematographer did an excellent job of differentiating between the sad present and the happy past. Genre appropriate, exactly as I expected, and I couldn't be happier. Yay.

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