ME

The record

ME is Jisoo’s first solo single album, released on 31 March 2023. It carries two songs, ‘꽃 (FLOWER)’ and ‘All Eyes On Me’, with the first as the title track. YG Entertainment’s album introduction says the record’s name holds her confidence as a solo artist.

NME wrote that Jisoo was the last of BLACKPINK’s four members to share a solo release. The music video went up on BLACKPINK’s official channel the same day under the title 꽃(FLOWER).

Reviews

Idology (아이돌로지) covered the song in its critics’ round-up of the singles released in March 2023. Yemi wrote that a melody built on minor chords, a flower for its subject, lyrics carried mostly in a Korean that sounds faintly old-fashioned, and a delivery that mixes head voice with bent notes to control the pacing, together make a first impression close to trot. The same entry read the members’ solo projects as set on giving each of the four a distinct colour, and concluded that in handing Jisoo a strong character of her own the song did its job.

NME’s Rhian Daly reviewed both songs on the day of release. “Revenge isn’t what she’s after, though, but rebirth,” she wrote of ‘FLOWER’. “‘I fly away like a blue butterfly,’ Jisoo sings, holding on to her poise without sacrificing emotion.” On the arrangement: “Instrumentally, ‘Flower’ is unpredictable in the best way, managing to mix elegance with inventiveness and elements of modern production with more traditional sounding sonics; a gentle thrill ride through one of the best K-pop songs of the year so far.” Her review closes: “If Jisoo – the final BLACKPINK member to share a solo release – continues to explore who she is in her own material moving forward, cultivating this side of her artistry should lead to a creative blossoming.”

Among the tracks

‘꽃 (FLOWER)’ is the title track. NME wrote that “from the opening lines, BLACKPINK’s Jisoo makes her position clear”, citing the singer who might once have been “as nice” as “A-B-C, do-re-mi” but no longer, and the warning that “this is also a side of me”. Idology’s Yemi named the minor chords, the old-fashioned Korean of the lyric and the movement between head voice and bent notes as what makes the song’s first impression.

‘All Eyes On Me’ is the second song. NME wrote that it “approaches strength from a different angle”, with a speaker “empowered by love – ready to risk it all, but not at the expense of the dominance she has (and deserves)”, and that its “words still pack an alluring quality at times – particularly when Jisoo uses them to throw down the gauntlet”, as in “Hold your breath and watch me, I’m a movie”.