On March 12, music critic Pitchfork released the score and review for Jennie's (Blackpink) solo album "Ruby".
Previously, Lisa's album "Alter ego" and Rose's album "Rosie" received 5.2 and 5.5 points respectively from this site. But for Jennie's album "Ruby", critic Joshua Minsoo Kim - who also reviewed the album "Alter ego" - gave Jennie a score of 7.1 with many compliments.
At the beginning, Joshua gave a general assessment of the solo music products of the 4 Blackpink members after separating to work separately.
The success has changed Blackpink forever, both in good and bad aspects. At the peak of their popularity, the Korean girl group shifted their focus to Western audiences, creating firmer songs.
For 30 years, K-pop artists have rarely had to follow the standards of American pop, where conservatism in style has limited K-pop's attractive genre flexibility.
Rose's "Rosie" lacks depth, Lisa's "Alter ego" cannot convey the meaning of the title (caption). Jisoo's "Amortage" sounds better, but just because it involves anonymousness.
Jennie's "Ruby" also has a similar approach, but the music production is more ambitious, the lyrics are more meticulous.
If Jennie has the strongest personal musical identity in the group, it is because her songs have an important element that the other members lack: They listen well, Joshua Minsoo Kim wrote.
According to this critic, the Blackpink members all need a song like "like JENNIE", a song that strongly transforms their sound into a new, fiery style.
Here, Jennie sings on a metal background combining funk baile and phonk, her clear voice delivery is especially convincing when switching between Korean and English, Joshua commented.
According to him, in some songs like ZEN and ExtraL, the lyrics may be a bit weak, but Jennies sound, rhythm and singing have compensated.
Joshua compared Jennie to pop star Rihanna: Jennie is excellent in these songs because she knows how to play games.
Like Rihanna, she has been criticized for her lazy performance and indifference to her voice improvement, but she also has enough appeal - a stylish style - to show weaker products.
Mantra is too minimalist, but Jennies clear, persistent voice created a breath-throwingally haunting melody.
Some songs are quite bad - "Twin" is a acoustic ballad with common details, and "Seoul City" is purposelessly twisted - so most of "Ruby's" songs prove that Jennie has "natural talent".
The critic commented: "The clearest proof of Jennie's diversity is that she is never lost between her personality traits."
"Damn Right," a co-production of Mike WiLL made-It, in which Jennie collaborated with kali Uchis and Childish Gambino, was commented to "play the most seductive moment of the Ruby album".
