A thorough review of GOT7’s Breath Of Love: Last Piece

After a seven month hiatus, the K-Pop group GOT7 finally came back with a full album titled Breath Of Love: Last Piece. Ahgases, GOT7’s fandom, were excited to see the group unified once again especially since this is the groups first full album since 2018. While there was excitement surrounding the comeback, there was also a lot of controversy surrounding the group’s treatment from their label. Ahgases went viral on Twitter with a Korean hashtag that translated to “GOT7DESERVESBETTER” after seeing that GOT7’s label, JYP, ran out of albums before the actual release date. Fans also accused the label of intentionally sabotaging the group because JYP didn’t advertise their album despite promoting other JYP groups like ITZY and Stray Kids. GOT7 members promoted the album themselves on social media and Ahgases even purchased Youtube ads and billboards for the group. International fans went viral in Korea as well for their Korean language skills; Korean Ahgases were impressed with the fact that international fans learned Korean just to send complaints to JYP. While it may seem dramatic for fans to react this way towards a company, this album meant a lot to Ahgases since it was the group’s first self-produced album. 

The album includes ten songs with each member being credited on at least one song. There are two title tracks for the album; the first being a pre-release single titled Breath, written and produced by the member Youngjae, and the second being the main title track  Last Piece, written and produced by Jaebeom.

 Breath was a beautifully composed song that mixed piano along with whistles to create a refreshing sound. Youngjae’s vocals complimented the light airy sound of the song perfectly; he most definitely stole the spotlight (as he should). The rappers of the group, Mark, Jackson, and Bambam, softened their voices for the song and even channeled their vocals for Breath. As for the music video…it was gorgeous! The music video is full of remarkable transitions, and the use of air in the video adds to the feel of the song. GOT7’s stylists also deserve praise for their immaculate work on this video. I don’t know who dyed Bambam’s hair red, but I want to personally thank them. Jaebeom’s hair…I stand by the statement that he is the only man alive who can rock a mullet. Don’t even get me started on the outfits, actually, I already started. Yugyeom’s turtle neck, Youngjae’s green coat, and  Jaebeom’s floral button up and scarf combo all added 25 years to my life! 

Last Piece is the perfect song to be the title track for the album. It starts off with a synthesized piano followed by upbeat percussion and it’s later disrupted by a rock beat. The song is upbeat and calms itself down with Jinyoung’s striking falsetto. Bambam’s first verse and Jinyoung and Yugyeom’s shared bridge have to be my favorite parts of the song. Both are very different from one another, which adds to the texture of the song and makes the experience so much more enjoyable. The music video takes place in a museum, but I can tell you right now that nobody is paying attention to the artwork. Everyone is focusing on the members and their amazing dance skills. The choreography matched the intensity of some parts of the song  and softened itself with the slower parts. The stylists also need to be praised once again because they manage to make some of the most questionable hairstyles fashionable. Bambam’s braided rattails were…dare I say…the best thing to ever happen to me. The make-up artists also deserve admiration because Jackson’s blush and Bambam’s red eyeshadow gave me the serotonin I deeply needed. Overall the song and music video  were a 10/10. 

I can write an entire dissertation for every single one of the songs on the album, but I’ll spare you the time and just give a quick rundown of my favorite songs. Thank You, Sorry, written and produced by Yugyeom, is my favorite song on the entire album. It’s very chill and sounds like it can be part of an original soundtrack for a romantic K-drama. The lyrics are heartbreaking yet sweet and makes for an amazing song to relax to. Yugyeom is also my favorite writer in the entire group, so it just makes sense that his song is my favorite. My second favorite song is Special, written and produced by Jackson. The song reminded me of GOT7’s early music and since I’m a sucker for nostalgia, it automatically became one of my favorites. 

Now, it’s time for the review of the physical album; some might not know this, but K-Pop albums aren’t like your traditional albums in the U.S. Korean albums typically come with a large photo book, photocards, postcards, small accessories, lyric sheets, and posters. Sadly this is where GOT7’s album fell short. While Breath Of Love: Last Piece did come with everything I mentioned, the quality wasn’t there. Fans blame their company JYP for not doing a quality check on the physical albums. There are 7 versions of the album, each dedicated to a member, and every single version has its issues. One common thing most fans mentioned was the photobook. The images in the album were partially cut off, so the full image wasn’t there. Another complaint was that the cd wasn’t actually inside the album, it was in a paper cover outside of it. There were also weird blank pages inside the photobook and the back album cover art looked cheaply made. 

The physical album did have its flaws, but I want to highlight some parts I loved. I received the Youngjae version of the album, so my photo book was graced with beautiful images of his sweet face. The pictures were high quality and I liked how the photo book had a mix of Youngjae’s photos and group photos. Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that the photocards were selfies of individual members, it was very cute. There was also a film strip with a photo of Jinyoung inside the album, which I thought was a creative touch. Since I preordered the album, I received additional items like an extra poster, key chain, and postcards. Overall, the physical album was a lot of fun and it felt like I was unwrapping a present.