REVIEW: JENNIE - RUBY

4/5

love JENNIE

Ruby Rose. One week after LISA gave us her 'Alter Ego', BLACKPINK are back on that solo thing once more with the release of JENNIE's 'Ruby'. Now, after 'Number One Girl' Rosé's 'Rosie' album, we're just waiting on my favourite, Jisoo. 'The Idol' to Lisa's 'White Lotus', Jennie from the Seongnam block (with the best name. Oh hey, sis!) gives us banger after banger, like her Blackpink sister. Keeping the charts ablaze like when the BTS brothers did their solo stuff. Even if Rosé's album, armed with its own 'Apt.' anthem with pure pop hit maker Bruno Mars, hits even harder with its deeper cuts. The alter-ego of 'Ruby' is the best album since 'Rosie' and brings out the big guns, too, for your new number one girl. Recorded in the same 'Seoul City' studio (the inspired Ingrid) and Paradise Sound Recordings in LA as Lisa's set, probably dropping in and supporting each other's sessions, 'Ruby' is as Hollywood as it's massive music videos, or Rose namesake.

Alongside strong singles, like the new empowerment 'Mantra', and the 'like JENNIE' anthem you'll instantly love and recognize as iconic, Jennie has some monster collaborations on the rest of the radio ready, big-budget singles. Flossing in grills over teeth as white as her suit, lent back with the Grammy winning Doechii for an 'ExtraL' song that doesn't take a single one. Riding 'Handlebars' with megastar Dua Lipa and waking up from a 'Love Hangover' with Dominic Fike. Not to mention a hilarious Godzilla drive-in movie video with more bad first dates than Bumble. Just watch her bowl. Jen is bringing the music video back to this post MTV generation more concerned with a TikTok. She knows nostalgia, even referencing the sing along to Mariah Carey's 'Sweet Fantasy' during 'Rush Hour'. Like Jennie? Nah! You're going to love her.

From the anything but plain 'JANE' intro with FKJ, to the Ruby 'Twin' that inspired this stage setting red on black album artwork of finding yourself, Jennie is in a world and concept of her own. Coming into a spaceship at zero gravity with the coolest ruby red astronaut suit that could have been made by Maybelline. Or maybe she was born wi...never mind. I don't want to 'start a war'. For all the big hits that are here, 'with the IE (way up)' (speaking of 'Jenny From The Block') and no 'Filter', it's 'Atlanta's' very own Donald Glover AKA, Childish Gambino playing Mr. Smith to a song featuring Kali Uchis that really hits. Your 'Damn Right' with lines like, "Candy-cane blue sticks bump in the Range (You make me feel so good)/Gettin' top notch means the simpler things/Playin' hopscotch but she landed a square (You make me feel so good)/He never even tried to put her legs in the air (Ooh-ooh)/He never even tried to put a baby in that." This is Jennie's moment, mind you. And on the same New Music Friday that Lady Gaga returns to the 'Mayhem' of her dance floor, Jennie bests even that pop art icon. Let alone her K Pop sister's own landmark album, last week. Feeling like the nostalgia of coming through corona with the 'Sour Candy' of a BLACKPINK collaboration off of Gaga's 'Chromatica' ball. 

A dynamic, dynamite debut, Jennie's 'Ruby' shines like Tuesday for this rolling stone. Or by 'Starlight' with lines like, "You say you see the starlight in me/Shining so bright and pristine/What about the moments in between?/You said you see the starlight in me/What about the black mystery?/What about the moments you don't see?/It's way deeper than what you think" after the neon gleam of 'Seoul City' like a souvenir tee. Achieving a state of midnite hour 'ZEN' with a moment of truth and "On that energy, yes/I am what you think about me/Cross me, please/I'ma keep it Z, Zen/Presence, bless/Money can't buy sixth sense." More mantras making their way through every hook. Line and sinker. 'F.T.S.' ("whatever happened to freedom and honesty") and all the rest. With so many genre alter-ego's like Lisa and Rosé, Jennie shows she is a straight solo artist in her own right. Just like the 'Ruby' name she took when the Korean was growing up in New Zealand. From a Kiwi, to a blood burgundy gemstone of real durability, Jennie is showing us the real her. Before we go back to black, red runs even deeper than pink. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'like JENNIE', 'Damn Right (Feat. Childish Gambino & Kali Uchis)', 'Seoul City'.

Spin This: Lisa - 'ALTER EGO'.