Born Pink

Aiming for an even wider international audience, the English-heavy Born Pink matures BlackPink with stronger production, more personal lyrics, and a bold conviction that cannot be contained.

They’re a truly great pop group—and Born Pink is the great pop album they were born to make.

‘Born Pink’ gifts fans a mixture of commanding hip-hop tracks, satisfying pop tracks and affecting piano ballads.

Tiptoeing around already familiar ideas, the album’s first half never finds new footing.

On ‘Born Pink’, BLACKPINK tread familiar thematic territory for pop music, but the imagery – finding solace from heartbreak at the bottom of a bottle (‘The Happiest Girl’), boasting about being the type of girl you take to your “mama house” (‘Typa Girl’) – isn’t particularly novel, though they have effectively applied a personal touch in the past (see Jennie’s ‘Solo’).

The good thing is this second record, Born Pink is a slight improvement overall, feeling a tad more cohesive, despite its modest runtime of 24 minutes. Their debut was simply a mixed bag of tracks thrown there to please the horde of fans who insisted on a full length release.

The execution itself often falls frustratingly flat, lacking originality and a clear-cut focus. With its limited scope of musical conceptions, Born Pink, therefore, sounds strangely restricted, as if detained in a confined space wherein it longs to escape.