Ruby

So, Blackpink ranking rn is: Lisa < Rosé <<< Jisoo << Jennie and I'm shocked that this is the order.

Honestly, when you look at Blackpink, you'd assume Lisa would be the one to be pushed and cared for the most due to how much she stood out. Even her solo history is longer than all the other 3 members.

But she crashed and burned with her album. Before her, Rosé released her album that has only one decent song (y'know the one), so it was up to Jisoo and Jennie to show that someone in the group could make a remotely decent solo project. The former has a decent album held back by the booming bass kicks that makes it mediocre, but Jennie just left everyone else in the dust.

What Lisa and Rosé didn't have, she has in bulk: personality. She is confident and sings appropriately. Hell, she raps like she's hungry to be the bigger star. She understands what she has to do to stand out and delivered it. Thankfully, most of the production work pairs really well with that attitude and presentation. And I say most because there's a fall off from "ZEN" onwards, where the album reins the energy back and focuses on slower songs. Even in those, "Filter" works well while the ballads are generically ok.

Weirdly enough, I'd take the Dua Lipa and the Childish Gambino songs out of here... is that a hot take?
They don't fit in that well and Jennie ends up being forced into the background. It's not even because of a lack of personality, although she does end up losing that quite a bit on both tracks, but because the features don't add anything, and especially the Dua Lipa one.

How does an artist go from being undeniable to a charisma vacuum?

In contrast, the FKJ one (even if it just instrumental) sets the album up very well, the Doechii one is just fun and both play off each others energy really well, which makes ExtraL the best track of the album and of all 4 members solo work, the Dominic one... it gets a pass because, for some reason, he's more captivating than Gambino and Kali.

I hope that the people responsible for the first half of the album (aside from "Handlebars") continue working with her because they nailed her style really well, but that's another topic I wanna discuss...

Why are 21 producers present in a 14 track album? (Jennie doesn't count and FKJ was a feature)
It's too much!

Same with writers. If we take her and the features out of the count, there were 40 writers in this. A little bit more than Rosé, a lot more than Jisoo, and quite a bit less than Lisa (who had fucking 50+ writers!).

I understand that Colombia and Odd Atelier wanted to be extra careful with her to not bomb on her solo debut and to help with writing english lyrics, which worked out and didn't. You have tracks like "like JENNIE" (who was produced and co-written with Diplo) that couldn't have been made for anyone but her due to how much it fits, but even that one falls into standard writing. It's vague and doesn't spark any sort of deep emotion in my or curiosity to learn more. Cookie cutter lyrics to have her do pleasant vocal noise, that's what it is in that track and what it sounds like in all the other songs.

Maybe there's some honesty or real life story behind them, but I don't spare Taylor Swift for doing the same thing so Jennie gets no personal special treatment. And I personally believe Jennie more than Swift because she has the attitude and personality to carry legitimacy into those lyrics, whether they're real or fabricated.

Literally, that's all this album ends up being about. Jennie sounds like a real human being. For some reason, that's something to praise nowadays. An artist that has some level of humanity is uncommon enough to become a compliment. That's why this works but Lisa and Rosé didn't, to not talk of Swift's or Beyoncé's entire discographies (aside from "Lemonade") or even The Weeknd.

Congrats Jennie, you have a personality. You're already in the top 1% of musical artists from that alone.