Skool Luv Affair

The record

Skool Luv Affair is BTS’s second mini album, released on 12 February 2014 with ten tracks. The title track is ‘Boy in Luv’. BIGHIT MUSIC’s album introduction on Bugs says the record closes the school trilogy that ran through 2 COOL 4 SKOOL and O!RUL8,2?, taking up love after dreams and happiness. The same text describes the title track as rock guitar set against hard hip-hop drums, recorded with a guitarist hired in Britain to get the rock feel.

Reviews

weiv carried the record in ‘weekly weiv’ on 19 February 2014, as one of four new releases that week. Two critics each left a short piece and a mark out of ten.

Mimyo gave it 8/10 and wrote that “this time that noisy, scattered character is being handled inside the music, which lets you feel how far they have come”. Having noted that a form in which several members take turns coming forward is not itself unusual, he wrote that “through a humorous mood and a fierce momentum it brings out the flavour of that scattered energy”, and closed: “that it manages to carry a certain musical range, and even an idol charge, along with it is very impressive.”

Block gave it 7/10 and wrote that “the growth in the members’ craft, in the finish and in quality is welcome”.

Idology (아이돌로지) took up Skool Luv Affair Special Addition, the repackage that followed three months later, in its 1st Listen for early May 2014. Writing there, Mimyo said the original record had shown considerable aggression, and of the two songs new to the repackage he wrote that “‘Miss Right’ and ‘Like (Slow Jam Remix)’ are quite welcome tracks”. The repackage carries this record’s ten songs unchanged, with one new song and a remix of a debut-album track placed in front of them.

Among the tracks

‘Boy in Luv’ is the song with a music video here, and the official channel’s upload is dated 11 February 2014, the day before release. The album introduction says the song is a modern reading of 1980s old-school hip-hop, worked on by the producer Pdogg and Bang Si-hyuk with the members Rap Monster and Suga.

‘Where You From’ is the track the introduction describes as a return to the dialect rap of ‘Paldogangsan’ on the previous record. ‘Tomorrow’ is the song the same text says Suga wrote while still a trainee, and which he produced himself for this record. ‘Just One Day’ is introduced as urban hip-hop built on a minimal rhythm and a tidy instrumental arrangement.

Numbers

The label’s own distribution metadata prints the record as Skool Luv Affair, dated 12 February 2014. The English song titles come from the same place: ‘상남자’ is Boy in Luv, ‘어디에서 왔는지’ is Where You From, ‘하루만’ is Just One Day and ‘등골브레이커’ is Spine Breaker. The repackage sits in the same metadata as Skool Luv Affair (Special Edition), dated 14 May 2014.

What came after

The school trilogy ends here, and six months later the group’s first full-length album, DARK&WILD, arrives. The sequence about youth begins the following year with 화양연화 pt.1 (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1).