Ruby

Sonically and from a production perspective, ruby is cohesive but not monotonous. Unlike her other groupmates, jennie explores different genres and production directions ranging from pop, r&b, hyperpop, afrobeats, dance music and hip pop. A more coherent central concept and theme of self discovery coupled with better and more characteristic production makes ruby the best solo debut out of all the blackpink members. Features appear to be thoughtful and well curated with each featured artist adding something positive to the project. That being said, although ruby has the most consistent themes and concept out of the blackpink solo debuts, some ideas remain to be perfected as a few singles do seem out of place when placed in context of the album. Lyrically, there is nothing really terrible but there is still room for improvement especially regarding what makes jennie’s lyrics unique to her. Though her lyrics are thoughtful and cover important themes, she could dedicate more time to developing a more characteristic and less derivative lyrical approach. Melodies and songwriting is consistent and mostly positive, with catchy and straightforward pop tracks such as way up and mantra, playful and delicate tracks such as love hangover and more agressive and experimental tracks such as like Jennie and zen. Zen, a highlight in particular, features intense drums, synths and electronic instrumentation combined with recordings of ambience and natural aspects. The front loaded mix creates quite the memorable and impactful track. Seoul city features some of jennie’s most interesting and unique songwriting and lyricism with a winding, sensual and hypnotic atmosphere. Twin also showcases some of the more acoustic moments on the album that I appreciated. However, the album does falter in the second half where consistency drops and some tracks feature boring melodies, lyrics and production that were not at all memorable such as fts and starlight. Despite this, ruby was still a very promising and strong project especially for a debut.