BLACKPINK has finally dropped their first full-length album, The Album, and Blinks have had it on repeat all day. The video for the title track, “Lovesick Girls”, dropped at the same time as the album and, as always, there is a mood. The BLACKPINK mood right now, as mentioned earlier this week, is grunge and angst as Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé are all about heartache and loneliness, the pain of love when it’s wrong, the compulsion of wanting even when it’s gone.

 

I love this song. I love how unapologetically pop it is. I love the poppy chorus, their voices on the chorus sounding like they’re singing while jumping up and down. Which makes you want to listen while jumping up and down, and I think we’ve all been there, during a time of emo-restlessness, when after hours of bummed out crying, suddenly you’re hit with a f-ck you, happy-sad energy. 

And of course, the visuals to go with all the clashing, contradictory feelings. Rosé is smearing herself in paint in her ripped up fishnets. Jisoo is smudged and wet, getting rained on one minute, frolicking in a fantasy garden the next. Their riding around with the top down at down, holding on to each other, putting sleep off for as long as they can after ransacking a convenience store. There’s some Reality Bites going on here too, non? I mean, only if you know. I’m not entirely sure BLACKPINK was shaped by Winona Ryder but so much of the style inspo is set from the mid-90s, if she’d made a cameo here it would have made sense to me. 

 

Jisoo’s making me want to rush over to my parents’ place to go through boxes of my old clothes and dig out my beloved plaid zip hoodie. 

 

The Album is a tight eight songs in total. I’ve made two full passes so far and, at least for me, there are no skips, you can play straight through. Every track is extremely listenable but the ones I’ve had on repeat the most are “Lovesick Girls” and the last song, “You Never Know”. Aren’t we all in our feelings right now? 

That’s what I appreciate about the groove they’ve taken at the most important time in their careers – this is not an album that’s all bubblegum and fun; BLACKPINK needs to show as much range as possible. So there are middle finger anthems, flirty serves, but also, towards the end of the album, they begin to explore their relationship with fame and celebrity, and the downsides that they’ve had to grapple with as they take their place in the culture as the most successful girl band in many, many years. 

With their Netflix documentary, Light Up The Sky, dropping soon, People’s Choice Awards nominations just announced today, collaborations with YouTube and other American media giants, and a major push on the western music charts, BLACKPINK’s ambition is obvious: they want every area to be their area. 

 

And they have some serious support. Cardi B was tweeting about “Bet You Wanna”, her song with BLACKPINK, all night last night. And I mean dozens of tweets and retweets. She was all over it. Even when the tweets weren’t about it she was all over it. Like this, LOLOLOLOLOL:

Here’s how Cardi describes “Bet You Wanna”: 

Although… if she’s being honest, and she always is, Cardi wants to improve it: 

She went to bed, and then as promised, she came right back to Twitter and has resumed her relentless promotion. Do as Cardi says, then. And let me know what you think!