“ We are the lovesick girls,” the group declare in its chorus, moments later throwing in the sucker punch: “ But we were born to be alone/But why we still looking for love?” Female empowerment has become a big part of the band’s brand and, here, they deal it out subtly, turning singledom and the search for love into an adventure rather than a need that must be fulfilled to make them whole. Even as the standout track from the album, though, here lies flaws. Vibrant dance-pop in a similar vein to Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’, it’s built to be blasted in the back of an Uber with your best mates, on the way to make new stories. Title track (K-pop parlance for the main promoted song) ‘Lovesick Girls’ shines as the record’s glowing highlight and, happily, features writing credits for BLACKPINK for the first time (Jennie and Jisoo contributed to the lyric writing, while Jennie also worked on the composition). By the time rapper Lisa spits: “ Bring out the boss bitch” in the final bridge, its fiery attitude has your heart racing and eardrums thumping. As the record’s opener, it sounds majestic – a fun, experimental piece that charts a journey from hitting “ rock bottom” before rising victoriously back up. The hip-hop-influenced, swaggering ‘How You Like That’ might have sounded jarring upon its release in June – like several different songs stitched together – but time has been kind to it. There is gold buried within its eight tracks, but it’s far from overflowing. Unfortunately, ‘THE ALBUM’ doesn’t quite reach the heights it should for a band of this stature. They’ve collaborated with household names like Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa and, last year, became the first all-female K-pop group to perform at Coachella. Despite only sharing a handful of material in that time, the band have become one of the most talked about K-pop artists on the global stage. No wonder their fans (known as Blinks) have been calling on their label YG Entertainment to give them more and sate their appetites.Īt long last, then, BLACKPINK’s debut album arrives, loaded with four years worth of anticipation. Before they started rolling out pre-release tracks from their long, long-awaited first LP, they had just three EPs and one single to their name. For BLACKPINK, though, who emerged in 2016, releases have so far been scarce. The Korean music industry is one that’s built on a steady stream of releases, often seeing artists put out multiple singles, EPs and full-length albums within months of each other. > C-cash usage for Pre-orders are available upon request.In the west, taking four years to release your debut album isn’t that big a deal, but in the world of K-pop that time feels like a lifetime. > If any of your purchases include a pre-order item, it will be processed once the pre-order item arrives. > Processing of orders will be done once the albums have arrived at our warehouse (ETA: 3-4 weeks after album release date) See your order confirmation email for details. Unpaid orders after 2 days will be cancelled.įor BDO Bank Deposit, please pay within 3 days after placing your order and send your payment slip. PAYMENT: Please follow your Dragonpay payment instructions and settle the payment within 2 days after placing your order. Release date in South Korea: OCTOBER 7, 2020