Recently, a review by music site Pitchfork about Lisa's (Blackpink) solo album "Alter ego" caused controversy on social media.
Lisa's album reviewer is Joshua Minsoo Kim. This critic gave the album a score of 5.2/10 and had harsh, sarcastic criticisms.
Lisa, a member of the K-pop girl group that set a record for Blackpink, needs to convince you that she has depth without the same group members. But Alter ego proves that she doesnt have that.
Alter ego, like many recent products of Blackpink, did not try anything bold... Born again is a mediocre disco song in Dua Lipas style. Dream is a shallow ballad....
When she was given the task of performing a song, the songs became boring.
She performs like a second-place B Cardi in Fxck Up The World, it was not until Future came along that we heard some personality.
Just one sentence in Fxck Up the World summarizes the entire experience: They want the old Lisa, so listen to my old music. Its hard to imagine who doesnt want to do it, some Joshua Minsoo Kims comments on the album Alter ego.
Pitchfork is a website famous for its strict reviews. Many artists with commercially successful albums have received low scores from this site.
However, in addition to the consensus, many viewers believe that critic Joshua Minsoo Kim's expression of Lisa's album is "too harsh" and seems to have been created to "ignite the anger".
Lisa's fans criticized Joshua Minsoo Kim for being unprofessional when he shared on Instagram: "I wrote about this terrible album during the break."
After that, he shared on X/ Twitter about receiving hundreds of attacking messages from Kpop fans after the review.
Joshua Minsoo Kim also frankly responded. If people ask us how we evaluate albums on Pitchfork, I will reveal a secret to you: If you make bad music, you will get a low score and if you make good music, you will get a high score, he wrote.
Although Jennie's review of her album "Ruby" has not appeared officially on Pitchfork, the critic revealed that he listened to Ruby and felt Jennie's album was better than Lisa's.
Notably, a Lisa fan said that Joshua Minsoo Kim showed his foreign personality through his music reviews: You dont like Alter ego because it comes from Southeast Asia. No one in a healthy mind can say Ruby is better than Alter ego.
Joshua Minsoo Kim replied: Many Lisa fans think I hate Southeast Asian musicians, but I am the only one who has ever judged a Vietnamese pop album for Pitchfork. I have also evaluated other albums of Vietnamese artists. You have to understand that when you make music well, you will get high scores.
Along with that, this critic shared about the albums of Vietnamese artists that he has scored for. Of which, Hoang Thuy Linh's album " Link" received a score of 7.2/10.
