“If you were able to sense the maturity, then that is good,” Jung Kook said in his recent interview with GQ. “I don’t think it was something I did intentionally. I think it has just come out naturally.” That means not having to worry about something like making another explicit track or what the songs should be about. The tracks off GOLDEN follow the emotional course that a relationship would go through: the first sparks of love in “Closer to You” (feat. Major Lazer) and “Yes or No,” overflowing confidence in “3D” (feat. Jack Harlow) and “Standing Next to You,” depths of despair in “Hate You,” and a devastating ending in “Too Sad to Dance” and “Shot Glass of Tears.”

Jung Kook doesn’t claim any songwriter or producer credits on this album. Instead, he looked to songwriters and producers he could rely on. The former is a rare case given the recent trend in the music creation process within studios, while the latter is the norm. “Standing Next to You” is a standout track made by Andrew Watt, who also did “Seven,” and Cirkut. Shawn Mendes is listed among the writers for “Hate You.” Ed Sheeran both helped write, and laid down some guitar on, “Yes or No.” Jung Kook draws from his musical tastes to choose good music and from there puts his amazing pop vocals on full display. Whereas the UK garage “Seven” and the 2000s-style “3D” showed us where the line for retro starts as far as young artists are concerned, “Standing Next to You” zips past Usher and all the way back to Michael Jackson for its funk/disco sound. The album doesn’t just play with the pop music timeline—it also draws on dance music. “Closer to You,” made in collaboration with Major Lazer, has elements of reggaeton, and “Please Don’t Change,” featuring DJ Snake, is a reminder of how the DJ once brought Justin Bieber to new heights.

The album format often comes wrapped in a number of things: artistic ambition, organic composition, self-projection. But an album is, above all, an artist’s portfolio of their work from that time and place. An album’s worth is judged based on the impression it leaves behind. GOLDEN is a case where a member of a boy band that gained an unprecedented level of success was reborn as a bona fide pop star. History repeats itself, and we’ve seen plenty of instances of the youngest member of a group having a very successful solo career. Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake, and Harry Styles were all the youngest in their groups, after all. And maybe there’s a special reason this happens. Maybe it’s because those who start their careers in their mid-teens have the privilege of working with a group early to become young pop stars with incredible power, popularity, and resources at their disposal.

But this so-called youngest theory was not expected to be witnessed in the K-pop scene. It perhaps began partly from BTS’s worldwide success. Thanks to that, Jung Kook’s been able to collaborate with world-class international pop creatives, to sing songs entirely in English for the whole world, and, in the end, become a pop star who can show off his musical tastes without fear of hitting writer’s block. The artist defines his own meaning of success: “I don’t think success is determined by other people’s perspectives. Just experiencing self-satisfaction, being happy, experiencing difficulties, being frustrated—I think in all those moments, ‘success’ is always mixed in with it.” Not only is GOLDEN a success story in itself, but it’s also just a glimpse of the satisfaction, happiness, hardship, and frustration to come. When history repeats itself like this, that’s a bet you can’t lose.