BLACKPINK’s Jennie has a sparse solo discography to her title, each in amount and high quality. 2018’s Solo and final 12 months’s You & Me felt fairly underdeveloped as songs. Nonetheless, she performed an integral half in Zico’s irresistible Spot! earlier this 12 months, paving the best way for extra solo work. Mantra emerges as her third single, persevering with lots of the charismatic themes that spotlight each her and her group’s discographies.
On this case, “charismatic” is my very good manner of claiming “one-note.” Has there ever been a Ok-pop act as massively profitable as BLACKPINK with as shallow a theme operating via their music? There’s solely so some ways to say “I’m so cool, I’m the very best, I’m fairly/sizzling/wealthy/enjoyable/and so forth.” Me, me, me, me, me. Whatever the musical high quality, these rallying cries ring extra hole with every repetition. Cool, fairly individuals don’t want to speak incessantly about how cool and fairly they’re — and once they do it makes them infinitely much less cool. (Cool individuals additionally launch songs longer than 2:16, by the best way!)
This arrested improvement isn’t solely a BLACKPINK drawback, however whenever you launch music so occasionally there isn’t sufficient alternative to deepen the nicely. Mantra isn’t a lot of a track, anyway. It’s… nicely… a mantra. However even seen via this lens, Jennie’s affirmation misses the chance for specificity in favor of probably the most predictable faux-edgy turns. It might be totally different if the music felt noteworthy or thrilling. In any case, many dumb pop songs have succeeded (even thrived) on the power of their melodies, manufacturing or basic star energy. Jennie has a surplus of charisma, however Mantra‘s irritating, catchphrasey sing-talk does her no favors by any means. It succeeds solely as an extension of a model, which was most likely the purpose anyway.
| Hooks | 4 |
| Manufacturing | 6 |
| Longevity | 5 |
| Bias | 4 |
| RATING | 4.75 |
Grade: F