Blackpink — Deadline
Well, the deadline is passed, test failed.
I distinctly remember the time while BLACKPINK broke to the western stage after 2018 — it felt so fresh and interesting. Their Coachella debut where they gave everything and got rewarded for that accordingly with loyalty and a free pass to the industry. Cool visuals and desire to prove themselves. A lot changed since that time and I have to admit there’s nothing positive about that statement.
No really full LP in 9 years of existence (technically The Album and Born Pink are, but let’s be real). Music got blander with each new release. The energy is gone. But here we are obliging the contract and selling at least something one more time — Deadline.
The EP opens with “Jump” and “Go” — two singles and better parts of this short 15-minute journey. The best I can describe those tracks is the gym exercise music from 2013. It’s fun and light and maybe engaging but only in parts, because no one really thought about the tracks structure and how they sound as a whole. They are just there — one as a Diplo template, the other one as a Cirkut one and I don’t know about Diplo but Cirkut minimum is usually better than this.
[There was a section discussing songs “Me and My” and “Champion” but it got redacted since we found out there were produced by Dr. Luke. We have no intention to review or support in any way anything this man does.]
The final track, “Fxxxboy” is here as a ballad and this is the blandest ballad you can imagine. “Keep your expectations underneath the pavement / Guess karma’s a bitch.” Extraordinary, isn’t it?
Eventually this album lacks three very important things: substance, engagement and a good team around it. Tracks sound dated at best, the production is not on the world-class level, the mixing is weird, the composition is unimaginative, lyrics are dull and the whole body of work is just lazy. In an industry obsessed with plastic perfection and toothless radio hits this doesn’t even land as a sloppy polished TikTok project — because you can clearly hear that no one really cared.
Deadline is an insult to the fans in the first place, who wait for their idols for years and support them no matter what. It’s an insult for music fans who pushed “play” and support that with streams. And it’s an insult to the industry where the machine is again choosing to work and highlight the worst man out there.
Bummer. Nothing to add.
3.5/10
