Surprise! Your favorite K-Pop boy band is fresh off a brief period of “rest and relaxation†and ready to serve up some new music. BTS sent its loyal ARMY spiraling on Twitter with the announcement of the new album, Map of the Soul: 7, which arrives February 21 via Big Hit Entertainment. Superfans salivating over the #7isComing hashtag can preorder the album on Thursday, January 9, according to an announcement on BTS’s Weverse mobile app. The forthcoming album comes a week after the group’s massive takeover of Times Square during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and just months after the release of its last EP, Map of the Soul: Persona. With Map of the Soul: 7 hype mounting, this septet of South Korean pop stars (RM, Suga, Jin, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook) seems poised to continue its global music dominance in the new decade.
Update, January 8: BTS is really keeping us on our toes. The group has now announced that the album’s first single will arrive on January 17 along with a whole “art film.†The announcement, which came via BTS’s official Twitter, is part of a “comeback map†revealing a release schedule for a trailer and a series of concept photos leading up to the album. We’re only in phase one, folks!