REVIEW: LISA - ALTER EGO

3.5/5

New Music Pink Friday

Anything BTS can do, BLACKPINK! can do better...with exclamation. YouTube views. Spotify streams. And now, it seems, solo success for the international K-Pop act. Around the same time 'Number One Girl' Rosé closed out the calendar with her 'Rosie' album, featuring huge hit and actual anthem 'Apt.' with Bruno Mars (so chorus catchy, I use it to teach English to Japanese kids at school), bandmate LISA was fronting Billboard magazine, across the continents with different country covers like a 'Cowboy Carter'. Now, with the instantly iconic album artwork of her born pink 'Alter-Ego', she shows us her sister side. Albeit keeping it in the border breaking dance halls that this 'Rockstar' made her first name only needed (like Beyoncé) household one in. Rocking the house like she does her Thai rapping home, in the scope with one of YG Entertainment and Interscope's biggest records yet. Putting 2025 into focus like 'Rosie' did, pulling the curtain on 2024's closer.

'The White Lotus' star is in a resort of riches all her own, with something else to show us. Smash singles for this 'New Woman' (featuring Rosalía for Rosé's friend), 'Born Again' (with Doja Cat and Raye). All as JENNIE is making 'ExtraL' music and videos with Doechii. Determined to 'Fxck Up The World' with the free bands of Future, Lisa is on one. Yet it's the inspired interpolation of Sixpence None The Richer's classic 'Kiss Me' that really is industry influential under the milky twilight. "Kiss me under the Paris twilight/Kiss me out on the moonlit floor/Kiss me under the Paris twilight (Ah-ah)/So kiss me," she sings on 'Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me)'. She also samples Tame Impala's 'New Person, Same Old Mistakes' on 'Rockstar', and brings out rolling stone other ones on further features. Tyla is by her side on 'When I'm With You' and THE Megan Thee Stallion lets her hair down on 'Rapunzel' Surely a smash for the huge hit future. There are also Vixi and Kiki solo versions of these tracks, if you didn't think Lisa could do it on her own.

Please! Don't you know how much this star shines? Even if BLACKPINK! are on a hiatus like their friends from Seoul. This incredible 'Elastigirl' has got it, all the way to the growl of a 'Badgrrrl' and the curtain drawing 'Dream' you don't want to wake from. A slow swan song singing, "I've been thinking/That I got no idea what you're thinking/Are you happy? Are you sad?/Are you always gonna hate me for that night in Tokyo?/When it ended, I kinda hoped that it'd be open-ended/But you never looked back/Well, I guess you can't hold on to something once you let it go", here underneath the Tokyo SkyTree neon night (ask her to teach you Japanese, and she'll say "hai"). Bringing the 'Thunder' all through the night like Prince, this princess come Queen sees the morning light on the relaxed vibe of 'Chill'. But heed her warning, "With a heart so cold, I give you ch-ch-chills (ooh-ooh)/With a kiss so cold from the ice that’s on my grill (ooh-ooh)/If it ain't for fun, I'm runnin' for the hills/Only want you for the thrill/Come on fast, it won't last/Boy, you need to ch-ch-chill", like this hip-hop throwback call and response.

That's just the 'Lifestyle' of the one who rocks, "Fast cars, drop tops and tank tops/Diamonds on my tick-tock/That's just my lifestyle, oh-woah/LA to Bangkok/Can't stop, so we don't stop/That's just my lifestyle, oh-woah." LISA has been around the world like Stansfield (and that sample), and I, I, and you, you know she's the truth. When BLACKPINK! get back together it's going to be a blockbuster, but this 'Alter Ego' is still one alternative act that blooms like a lotus, and her own growing confidence that deserves the cockiness of a rapper. This is the best 'Alter Ego' since R&B singer and 'Fast and the Furious' and 'Transformers' franchise star Tyrese showed his rapping side, Black Ty. A dynamite debut from the dynamic star. Cocksure and charismatic from California's Paradise Sound Recording Studio in Los Angeles and the Legend Music of Phuket. This feels like Hollywood and home. Some critics are calling out the cohesion, but that's just their own ego's talking. LISA has always known how to blend styles like the purple one, and now as she pink switches up, she hits like a Dodger. Blending English and Spanish language like LA, Thailand's own reaches even more hearts, minds and egos. Name a better alternative! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Rockstar', 'Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me)', 'Dream'.

Spin This: Rosé - 'Rosie'.