Miscellaneous Thoughts on Listening to "Born Pink", the Second Album from the K-pop Girl Group Blackpink, for the Fourth Time During this Work Day

We love to time theft

• Pink Venom is good actually, despite my earlier tweets.

• The key thing that makes it good is it is a good intro song. It’s a song that sets a tone, and specifically a tone for this album at its best: brash, silly, frenetic, over-the-top, hyper-confident in its own ability even if that confidence is maybe a touch misplaced if you looked at it with an “objective” lens. It’s a song that creates a fiction and doesn’t let you poke your head out from outside of it. It’s a song that if you’re following it fully, you’ll always feel a little off-kilter, looking back over your shoulder because it just keeps dragging you along. That’s what this album should be! Blackpink shouldn’t let you stop long enough to think about the insanity you’re participating in!

• To that end, the best part of Pink Venom is (alternately) Lisa/Jennie’s loud little breath after “get’-em-get-‘em-get-‘em” in the choruses. An audible signal of “Oh you wait, we’re just getting started”

• What a nuts central sample on Shut Down lmao.

• Blackpink beats, I think, have 2 ideal modalities: trap-style, and early-2010s-EDM-style. This album very heavily leans into the former, but there’s a least a few of the latter coming up. But those are the two lanes they seem to best be able to play with*

• *The giant counter, obviously, being however you’d describe the single best live performance they’ve ever done, the Live “Remix” of Whistle

• I saw a review somewhere today saying part of Blackpink’s whole thing is “Better than they ought to be raps” or something of that ilk. That’s Shut Down! Jennie’s got some actual bars! Jisoo gets a chance to play!!

• Similarly, meta-take on the album, for what feels at first (fourth) blush like a more rap-heavy album than The Album, it’s great that Rosé and especially Jisoo get a lot of chances to play equally or just-shy-of-equally to Lisa and Jennie! 

• “Whipitwhipitwhipitwhipit” is the part that will take the longest to grow on me

• I am genuinely impressed with Jennie and Lisa’s second verses!!

• Again, what a wild beat lol

• Typa Girl also is very democratic about splitting the parts nearly four-way!

• There’s no features on this album, in contrast to Cardi B and Selena Gomez on The Album, and I don’t think I miss features by any stretch, but it could be fun, especially on some of the 2nd tier songs like Typa Girl 

• Yeah Yeah Yeah is the best song on the album, hands down.

• To the earlier point, early-2010s-EDM-style!!!!

• Also, it’s a 20 on the Teen Driving Through A Tunnel At Night Scale. It loses points because I haven’t looked at the translation to confirm how teen-focused the lyrics are, and it’s weirdly kind of the first example I think of of a Teen Driving Through A Tunnel At Daytime song?

• Just great melodies, killer groove, the synths rock, I’m furious this wasn’t available for any of my roadtrips from earlier this summer.

• Wait…… I didn’t clock until just now that Hard To Love is a Rosé solo????????

• I mean it makes sense and fits incredibly well with the song, but that’s NUTS to do on a group album????

• Especially one with only 8 songs??????

• Just let this be an actual solo and add another group song to the album?????????

• (Not really really complaining because the song is great and it’s a good addition all told, but still.)

• The Happiest Girl isn’t bad per se, but it’s such a huge drag on an otherwise high-energy album

• And for an album so short, feels like a weird betrayal of the tone set in the first half

• I do quite like the “I can’t stop the tears if I want to” melody line

• Blackpink in their Rep era!!!!!!!! Damn, Tally!!!

• “Fuck” in the hook!!!!! The first line of the hook! And all four girls get a chance at it!!

• Jennie saying she likes to “play dirty like all the fuck boys do” is so deeply “Did you hear that? I drink OLD FASHIONEDS NOW” and I adore it

• Ready For Love another example of the EDM-style, and a pretty solid track, though definitely <<<<<<<<<<<< Yeah Yeah Yeah

• The PUBG concert thing was sure weird, huh

• I like Ready For Love more in the context as an album closer than I did as a standalone, but it’s certainly B-tier for me

• Everyone not named Taylor Allison Swift should be forced to have their next album be not more than 25 minutes long. This is a good length. So decreed.

• My so far album rankings are:

  • 1. Born Pink

  • 2. The Album

• My so far song rankings are:

  • 1. Yeah Yeah Yeah

  • 2. Pink Venom

  • 3. Shut Down

  • 4. Hard To Love

  • 5. Type Girl

  • 6. Ready For Love

  • 7. Tally

  • 8. The Happiest Girl

• My current top Blackpink songs overall sit I think at:

  • 1. As If It’s Your Last

  • 2. Whistle (Remix Version) - Live

  • 3. Playing With Fire

  • 4. Lovesick Girls

  • 5. Ddu-Du Ddu-Du

  • 6. Yeah Yeah Yeah

  • 7. Boombayah

  • 8. Pink Venom

  • 9. Pretty Savage

  • 10. Bet You Wanna

• Which is to say while Born Pink overall is better than The Album, the highs of some of the previous singles, and the high of The Album are higher than the highs of Born Pink.

• Anyway, good and dumb and fun and this stupidly obsessed fanboy is quite satisfied.

• Also, now I don’t need (or necessarily want) Blackpink to pull a Twice, but I could go for some more songs sooner than 2 years from now!

• Lol and also spent far too much money on tickets to see them live in 2 months and regret it zero. 🥳