After a year hiatus, YG’s girl group BLACKPINK is finally back with a set of new(?) songs in their latest album ‘Square Up.’ Similar to their former title tracks, BLACKPINK entertains this comeback with title track ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ and secondary title track ‘Forever Young.’
Upon watching the music video for ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’, it reminded me of their former music videos: pretty, pink, and visually pleasing. However, I do appreciate that the ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ music video included new shots different from their other music videos, primarily of the members and the misperceptions that people might have of them that doesn’t actually describe who the girls are in real life. There were a few (hidden) messages in this music video that one had to pay attention in order to understand.
Album wise, the album consists of 4 songs overall (where apparently ‘Forever Young’ was a song that had already been in the works for a few years but wasn’t actually released until now). I came into this comeback without any expectations, but was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the songs. While I do think BLACKPINK can offer more and should be able to return with newer, bigger, and better songs than the ones in ‘Square Up’ (considering that they had been on a year hiatus), this album was consistent, stable, and fun to listen to (I thought it also fit right in with the summer comeback and whatnot). My favorite album track would have to be ‘See U Later’ but ‘Forever Young’ also grew on me eventually.
It’s unfortunate that BLACKPINK has been placed on the backburner and in YG’s dungeon for so long considering just how much potential they have to be bigger than they already are. BLACKPINK’s debut was explosive and received great responses from fans and they had constant promotions upon their debut in 2016. However, for whatever reason, YG decided to place them into a year hiatus after giving them one comeback last year and that was that. For a year hiatus, BLACKPINK has still achieved great records with this latest comeback; if anything, this is proof that the girl group has 1) loyal fans who will support them regardless 2) interested people who are still looking out for whatever materials the girl group puts out. YG should be utilizing as many opportunities as possible to get BLACKPINK out there, but it’s unfortunate that he is the one obstacle that prevents them from accelerating. Other than more consistent and constant comebacks, it would also be great if BLACKPINK were given songs that the girls feel comfortable performing. While ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ aligns with the type of sound that ‘Boombayah’ exhibited, I would prefer to see BLACKPINK do more bubbly and less ‘in-your-face’ concepts, like how they did with ‘Whistle’ and ‘As If It’s Your Last.’ There’s so much pressure for the girls to live up to the hype and expectations that fans have of them and I think a great way to relieving themselves of this stress is to allow them to perform to songs that doesn’t always ‘go hard.’ Give the girls their own sound, their own image, their own style.
Putting aside these wishes, it’s unknown when BLACKPINK will return with another comeback so we should cherish this comeback while we can.
Credit: K-BERSERK @ youtube, BLACKPINK @ youtube
MaryMeKpop 