Every Song Ranked on BLACKPINK’s ‘Born Pink’: Critic’s Picks

Throughout their second full-length, the K-pop supernovas highlight their vocals, respond to detractors, and flex over some of their most avant-garde sounds to date.

Nearly two years after the K-pop girl group BLACKPINK released their debut full-length LP, The Album, in 2020, word of their reappearance with new music was just made public this summer. Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa’s quartet quickly generated interest among music enthusiasts around the world as they waited to see what they would come up with next.

BLACKPINK has returned in full with their second full-length album Born Pink, following the release of the chart-topping “Pink Venom” and the buzz single “Ready for Love.” Similar to The Album, the recently released Born Pink features eight songs with the members singing and rapping in both English and Korean. This new LP, however, boasts four songs that are entirely in English, signaling their desire to further break down linguistic barriers. Along with modern pop and hip-hop styles, the album also features a variety of other sounds, such as traditional Korean instruments, classical music from the 19th century, and old-school synthesizer work.

Before “Pink Venom” was released, the members of BP had a press conference where they enthusiastically discussed their new music and the effort they put into each piece. Rosé exclaimed, “We have really focused on our new songs,” and Lisa concurred, adding, “All our songs are really wonderful.”

With the release of Born Pink, BLINKs and music lovers all across the world may now listen to all of the brand-new BLACKPINK tracks. The new LP, which is spearheaded by the new single “Shut Down” and features songwriting contributions from Jisoo and Rosé, solidifies the group’s already unbeatable discography. But which songs particularly stand out? Below, you can see how we ranked each song from BLACKPINK’s Born Pink.

8. “Ready for Love”

The dance-pop music receives the lowest ranking because BLINKs had already heard it almost two months earlier at BLACKPINK’s virtual concert with PUBG Mobile, but we adore the ecstatic production throughout. Even so, we are aware that the females are more capable than “Ready for Love” portrays.

7. “Typa Girl”

“Typa Girl” is equally at home with BLACKPINK’s hip-hop-focused singles from this era, “Shut Down” and “Pink Venom,” but it doesn’t hit as hard as those songs, which include some of the group’s most avant-garde production work to date. Instead, some of the band’s iciest phrases to date are what stick out in this song: In the first stanza, Jennie croons, “I bring money to the table, not your dinner/ Both my body and my bank account could figure.”

6. “Hard to Love”

If you needed to listen to this one again to make sure you didn’t misunderstand anything, we wouldn’t hold it against you. Despite being credited to BLACKPINK, Rosé, the group’s powerful soprano, sings solo on “Hard to Love” in a lite-disco single that hardly scratches the surface of her vocal range. The star’s great two singles from last year, “On the Ground” and “Gone,” served as a reminder of her genuine vocal prowess and whetted our appetites for her upcoming solo album.

5. “Shut Down”

After six years in the business, the always-evolving BLACKPINK realized they had to shock their demanding and escalating fans. One of their most thrilling and immediately fulfilling productions to date involves incorporating classical music—specifically, a section of “La Campanella” by 19th-century composers Franz Liszt and Niccolo Paganini—into their hip-hop realm. However, these unanticipated musical surprises are what K-pop is all about, and BLACKPINK continues to be a leader whose next move no one can guess. The repetitious lyrics in the chorus prevent this from being one of the more noteworthy songs on Born Pink.

The group responding to their detractors is as satisfying. Before Jennie uses her rap to denounce a “bunch of want tobes that want to be me, me three if I was you,” Rosé sings, “Praying for my downfall, many have tried, darling.”

4.”Tally”

BLACKPINK at its most savage: the minimalist, English hip-hop track “Tally” allows all four members to lash out with profanities. In the ever-safe K-pop landscape, the chorus of Rosé’s first track, “I say f-k it when I feel it / Cause no one’s keepin’ ‘tally / I do what I want with who I like / I ain’t gon’ conceal it,” feels somewhat revolutionary. In reference to the persistent double standards that the girl group has encountered throughout their career, Jennie continues, “Sometimes, I want to go play dirty/ Just like all the f-k boys do/ That’s my choice.”

The song’s finest line, originally spoken by Jisoo, is “My body don’t belong to none of them though/ And I’m not going to change ‘cause you say so,” a revolutionary phrase in K-pop considering the genre’s intense emphasis on appearance and physicality. They enjoy their own beauty more than anyone else.

3. “Yeah Yeah Yeah”

With co-writers Jisoo and Rosé from Born Pink, “Yeah Yeah Yeah” is one of the most eagerly awaited songs from the band. It feels like the happier follow-up to “Playing With Fire” with its hints of vintage synthesizer sounds while talking about hesitation but finally free-falling in love. This time, BLACKPINK are a little more composed (translated lyrics: “What is this again? I don’t even know why you came; I don’t even know myself. But in the end, you simply want a crush to “just say yeah yeah yeah” (“What is it that I keep remembering?”). We anticipate this song to be a standout if the girls perform it on tour because of the upbeat, soaring dance breakdown in the chorus.

Jisoo has written two BLACKPINK songs, the first being “Lovesick Girls” for The Album, and the second being “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” both of which offer a more nuanced interpretation of conventional love ballads. Jisoo is a songwriter we want to hear more from, and we expect everything she writes for her upcoming solo project to be just as exciting.

2. “The Happiest Girl”

Fans have been pleading with BLACKPINK for longer albums for a number of reasons, but one major one is that an LP allows them to experiment with different musical genres and vocal techniques. The feisty “Bet You Wanna” off of 2020’s The Album gave each member a chance to experiment with different vocal textures, while the album’s closing track “You Never Know” discussed BP’s difficult experiences with megafame. One of those tracks on Born Pink, the all-English piano ballad “The Happiest Girl,” was co-written by pop-star pair Teddy Sinclair and Willy Moon and gives the band members a chance to display their complete vocal range. Although Jisoo has a beautiful head voice, it now has a new fragility to it. Not to mention Lisa sings brilliantly with a mature, steady delivery—she normally only handles raps on BP songs—demonstrating that BLACKPINK are true all-around entertainers.

1. “Pink Venom”

The K-pop princesses gave ample notice to the pop scene that they were coming with the opening of the K-pop phenomenon’s comeback track “Pink Venom,” which almost sounds like a playground chant.

The title “Pink Venom” conjures up two opposing images that can only fit an act like BLACKPINK, much as “Black” and “Pink” combined symbolize the group’s whole range. The song’s production also incorporates hip-hop beats with the traditional Korean instrument geomungo, which is used in the music video that goes along with it and features the foursome portraying their home nation in various ways.

There’s a reason “Pink Venom” is still popular today, as evidenced by the fact that it spent two weeks at the top of the Billboard Global 200 and rose to become BLACKPINK’s highest-charting solo single on the Hot 100. The song resonates with listeners on a personal level as well as representing the group as a whole. Who can resist yelling “Kick in the door / Waving the coco” in unison with Jennie’s initial line?