Song Review: Jisoo (BLACKPINK) – Click

Of all the BLACKPINK solo releases, Jisoo’s music has felt the most localized. Obviously, it’s been popular worldwide, but last year’s mini album still felt very much in the K-pop mold. New single Click comes ahead of a promised album, and sees her branching into a more obvious global direction with fully English lyrics and a glossy pop sound. I’m trying to remember a time before AI, when I’d call a song like this “generic radio fodder” and be done with it. But these days, it’s hard not to wonder how much humanity was actually involved in this product. It all feels so gauze-covered — this sanitized, personality-free pop that’s so sterile and frictionless you could throw it at a wall and it wouldn’t even bounce. If we define Click solely as an example of pop songwriting, it ticks boxes you would expect. There’s a chorus. It has melodic progression. There’s even a bridge, which feels like a luxury in this tight music economy. Yet, there’s no tension involved. The human spark is missing. Everything is too clean. The song is dead behind the eyes. I honestly don’t know what to make of it, but I definitely can’t picture anyone involved leaving the recording studio with the giddy feeling ...