Alter Ego

the take

Alter Ego has some of the best BLACKPINK solo tracks out there. however, it’s also deeply flawed at the very core of its conceptualisation. the album gets its name from the background concept of LISA’s five alter egos - Kiki, Speedi, Vixi, Sunni and Roxi. without getting too deep into the details, Sunni is the relaxed one, Vixi is the evil, hardcore one, Kiki is the throwback Y2K one and the other two aren’t that important. this isn’t just opinion - the album features two tracks labelled as solo tracks by Kiki (“Rapunzel”) and Vixi (“FXCK UP THE WORLD”), with the other 3 names nowhere to be found. if you didn’t buy a physical copy where the alter egos were spelled out and explained on the packaging, you wouldn’t have a clue about any of this, which would make the presence of the Vixi and Kiki names all the more confusing. it also doesn’t do her any favours, in my opinion, to introduce five split personalities when the wider public is still trying to figure out who LISA is. she might have been able to get away with one - Vixi the villain - in the same way Nicki Minaj had Roman Zolanski as an outlet for her more extreme content. in terms of the music itself, the standout tracks are, without doubt, “FXCK UP THE WORLD”, “New Woman (feat. ROSALÍA)”, “Dream”, “Chill” and “Born Again (feat. Doja Cat & RAYE)”). while my personal favourite is “Born Again”, it’s difficult to call it a song that showcases LISA (or whatever alter ego is responsible for this one) as it is, ostensibly, a RAYE song - she wrote it, produced it and there is a leaked version on the internet of her singing the entire thing. personally, “Chill” and “New Woman” are great representations of LISA, and “Dream” more often than not brings me to the verge of tears. The rest of the tracks follow a similar space - it doesn’t sounds like five distinct personalities on an album at all. nor should it, because this is all LISA. Alter Ego is a great taste of LISA as an artist, only spoiled slightly by a gimmick.