Today: Mar 29, 2024

BLACKPINK ‘Shuts Down’ with new album drop

Sarah Shelton Photo Editor

One of the biggest girl groups in the world, BLACKPINK, released their second album “BORN PINK” on Sept. 16, 2022. 

According to TIME, in an article from 2019, “the four women of BLACKPINK, who debuted as a group in 2016, comprise a multilingual performance powerhouse connecting with fans across borders. Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa may have just begun touring globally, but a strong fanbase stretching far beyond South Korea is already powering their rapid ascent.” 

Previous to this album, the group had only released singles, EPs and one album titled “THE ALBUM” back in 2020. 

After releasing “THE ALBUM,” they came back from their hiatus on Aug. 19, 2022, to release the first single off the new album titled “Pink Venom.” 

When I first listened to “Pink Venom,” which happens to be the first song on the album, my first thought was, “this is a little all over the place.” 

The song starts with an instrument I’ve never heard of, but I loved the sound. After looking it up, I discovered the song has traditional Korean instruments in it, and what it starts off with is a geomungo. 

“Pink Venom” has a hip-hop, pop and EDM feel, which is why it felt all over the place. 

Jennie and Lisa rap in this song, and while I absolutely loved that part, it felt like it was randomly inserted. After listening a few more times, I absolutely fell in love with the song. 

According to Billboard, “the group’s music video scored the biggest video 24-hour music video debut of 2022, and the third-largest 24-hour music video debut of all time. With a staggering 90.4 million views in its first 24 hours, ‘Pink Venom’ is BLACKPINK’s biggest music video debut ever.” 

The next song on the album is the second single titled, “Shut Down.” This song was released with the album but has a music video as well. 

“Shut Down” definitely has a different vibe than BLACKPINK’s older songs. It sounds like something their member “Lisa” would release as a solo song.  

Hearing Jisoo and Rosé “rap” in this was amazing because they are known as the singers while Lisa normally does the rap parts and sometimes Jennie. 

While this song is very different, I’m happy they still use the line “BLACKPINK in your area,” as it kind of has become their brand. 

The third song on the album, “Typa Girl,” I enjoyed a lot. Rosé and Lisa are my favorite members of the group and hearing Rosé’s voice and Lisa’s really fast rap made me hyped.  

I loved the lyrics such as, “put you under spells or look into a crystal ball” and “you know that you were cold ‘cause you felt my fire.” 

Track four, “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” is all in Korean, except for the chorus. I like this because as a K-Pop group, they seem to be doing a lot of English songs. It’s a cute song. 

“Hard to Love,” track five, only features Rosé. I was surprised by this because all  the members, except Jisoo, have their own solo songs that are not on BLACKPINK albums. 

I love this song because the lyrics feel like something I’m currently going through due to being scared to love after being in toxic relationships.  

Track six, “The Happiest Girl,” is the ballad of the album. This is a song I very much needed earlier this year. I highly recommend listening to this song and reading the lyrics if you are the type of person who listens to music during difficult times, like myself. 

I get really excited when I can relate to the lyrics of a song, which does not happen often with BLACKPINK as they typically have fun pop songs. 

The next song, “Tally,” is my favorite lyric-wise. From “everybody judge, but looking twice,” to “I’m not gonna change ‘cause you say so,” it is something everyone needs to hear sometimes. 

Lastly, the album ends with the song “Ready for Love.” This song features a lot of both languages, Korean and English. While it sounds nothing like it, the lyrics remind me of Selena Gomez’s “Come and Get it” and Bridget Mendler’s “Ready or Not.” They actually collabed with Gomez at one point in their discography.  

“Ready or not, here I come and I’m running,” the members sang. 

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