Alter Ego

The record

Alter Ego is Lisa’s first album, released on 28 February 2025 with 15 tracks. It collects the singles she had released from 2024: Rockstar, New Woman, Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me) and Born Again. Future, Megan Thee Stallion, Tyla, Doja Cat, RAYE and Rosalía feature, and the last two tracks are solo versions named after two of the record’s alter egos, the set of personas the album is built around.

Reviews

Rolling Stone’s Maura Johnston reviewed the album the day before release. She opens on the idea that “pop stars have to possess at least a few chameleonic tendencies”, and writes that on her first solo full-length Lisa “takes that ideal to heart and beyond — Alter Ego, as its name might suggest, is ‘populated’ by five Lisa variants, each one tasked with embodying the album’s varied moods and styles.” The same review says that “Lisa’s versatility is clearly a strength”.

Writing on the day of release for NME, Crystal Bell marked the places where the record lands. “When Lisa locks into a sound and a statement, the results can be electrifying,” she wrote, and: “Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that Lisa shines brightest in an ensemble. Having spent years in a group, she seems most at ease when bouncing off another artist’s energy.”

Among the tracks

Both outlets put ‘New Woman’, with Rosalía, first. NME called it “the album’s standout moment – a sleek, pulsating celebration of reinvention”, and Rolling Stone introduced it as the place of Kiki, the “Y2Cute” pop character among the five the record builds.

Of the opening track ‘Born Again’, NME wrote that it is “a sultry disco kiss-off to an ex that pulses with a late-night groove and finds Lisa flexing her nimble vocals”. The same review called ‘When I’m With You’, with Tyla, “a smooth, effortless duet”, and read ‘Rapunzel’, featuring Megan Thee Stallion, as a boastful summertime bop.

Rolling Stone found the clamour of BLACKPINK’s biggest singles still present on “the aggressively seductive ‘Elastigirl’ and the storming ‘Badgrrrl’”, and wrote of ‘Chill’ that it “has a sullenness that recalls Nelly Furtado’s ‘Say It Right’, with Lisa flipping the cool-girl archetype into an imposing statue of an ice princess.”

Numbers

Newsis reported that on the chart Billboard dated 15 March 2025 Alter Ego entered the Billboard 200 at number seven. By the same report the album moved the equivalent of 45,500 copies in its first week: 28,000 of them traditional album sales, which entered Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart at number one, with 16,500 streaming equivalent albums and 1,000 track equivalent albums. On the UK’s Official Albums Chart Top 100 it entered at number 20.