Song Review:: Jennie (BLACKPINK): Mantra

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  • Release date: 2024 October 10
  • Album tracklist: Mantra

  • Album runtime: 2 minutes

 So that's both Lisa and Jennie who have released singles this month within two weeks of each other. Pretty cool. And apparently Rosé also got herself an OST, so that's also pretty cool But this is barely a song in length. It's just over two minutes. 

This is a classic BLACKPINK sound. I'm not super familiar with BLACKPINK, though I do have songs that I recognize as BLACKPINK songs if I hear them that I like. But that was my first thought while listening to this song. The trumpet is an interesting instrument that I'm hearing, being a pretty uncommon addition to the the instrumentals of most K-Pop songs. I think I may also hear the wooden blocks, or a cowbell. I know those two instruments are very much not the same thing, but without having them isolated, I can't quite tell. Either way, what we have is another interesting sound to the mix.

Jennie, like her groupmate Lisa, went with an English track for this month's single. Here is where the style similarities between this song and a lot of the BLACKPINK sound as far as I'm currently familiar with. Unfortunately, this is the kind of sound from BLACKPINK that isn't my favorite. There's not a lot of variation within the repetition, which makes the song a good club song, but not something that I'd like to on a regular basis. The little bit that we're hearing her voice in a more substantial way other than the whispering and the sing-song shows that she's got a lot going for her, but she sacrificed those vocals for this dancing club vibe.

I think the song is supposed to be some sort of a female anthem, but I'm not feeling it from the music video. There's a lot of confidence here, which is nice and deserved given the track record of her group. But she's not showing off why except for the short sections of the song where we get to see choreography. Those are probably my favorite sections without context because she's not just saying she's awesome; she's actively proving it there.



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