Song Review:: Jisoo (BLACKPINK): AMORTAGE- earthquake

• Release date: 2025 February 14

• Album tracklist: earthquake, Your Love, TEARS, Hugs & Kisses

• Album runtime: 12 minutes

 There's a bit of a ramble that I think is interesting, but you fully have my permission to stop reading this next paragraph at any point and just get down to the reviewing part. Not that you needed my permission. I can't control how much you read or don't read. I can just try to make things interesting foe me and hopefully someone else finds them interesting as well.

I was hoping to be able to push this one off for a little bit longer, but Earthquake has gotten wins, so here we are. It's literally nothing against Jisoo, but with my backlog, in an effort to catch up, I'm dumping songs into my drafts so that I remember to review them when I'm less slammed, but trying to focus on groups, with bigger profile releases getting the front of the line. As of this post and not including it, I have 23 songs sitting in my drafts waiting to be reviewed. I actually was looking forward to doing Jisoo's when I had a moment to breathe because I liked Flower from...two years ago. But, it is what it is, so here we are. Even if they haven't released a group song in a hot minute, celebrating the solo releases is just as important. When I saw what was happening with the G-Dragon ticket sales in Seoul, I made the comment to my friend, who was going to try to get BLACKPINK tickets that day, that at least she was trying to get tickets to just BLACKPINK, and then laughed because the insanity of the context of that statement when I think everyone knows what kind of grip BLACKPINK has on the industry. Insanity that I can make that statement and not have it be a snooty condescension. I'd love to find some sort of examination on the chokehold that the Big 3 companies have on K-Pop. (I'd include HYBE, but considering BIGBANG debuted about the time BigHit was founded, YGE has had a little bit of extra time to solidify that hold, and I'd like to focus specifically on the Big 3.) It would be like looking at the Big 5 in the American film industry, which I have read quite a bit about because I love looking at the studio system because it's fascinating and there are a lot of similarities between the kpop industry and the studio system from Old Hollywood. Anyway. Sorry for the rambling. On to the review.

Ooh, low rumbling instrumentals that pair well with her vocals. Minimalistic as well. They aren't soft and fluffy though. There's a heavy solidness to the instrumentals that lingers through even when it backs up even more to give the vocals more space. We've got some ticking from a clock, which is good to hear just in general, and because of the general minimalism of the instrumentals, rather than create a wall of sound, it adds a texture note. Audience participation snapping through the post-chorus, which is cool. The bass feels a little grungy under the electropop instrumentals.

Why does this song make me think of James Bond theme songs? Her voice feels very controlled through this whole thing, and she's a little breathy in places that reminds me of whipped honey, but not in an unsupported way. Just in a way that could make any intense choreography a little difficult. Her voice also strengthens up in places, so it's not fully breathy the entire time, and becomes more like warmed honey. 

Storyline! Hello! I'm delighted by this. There are a lot of different dynamic parts to the music video, that are cut together fairly well without being too blended, so it did feel more like a movie, specifically one that's got a fairly linear narrative. She looks really good, and I love the little head wobble bobble with the hands part of the choreography.