[Review] Black Pink - How You Like That

Normally this late into the month, I'd reserve talking about a song I wrote a teaser bit for in the Late Report installment but this is something else. Black Pink are finally back so clearly they'll have something special lined up, right? Surely they wouldn't make fans wait so long just to drop another recycled turd on us, right? ...right?

When "How You Like That" starts I immediately got "Kill This Love" flashbacks. And that induces panic. Half-expected Jennie to go "yeah yeah yeah" right then and there. But the opening verse comes around and it's pleasant! The song flows into Rose's prechorus and the English makes sense and rhymes, to boot. Then we get to the chorus...and I kinda don't even wanna talk about it.

Instrumental? Bad. Another "silent chorus?" Bad. Repetition? Bad. C'mon man all they had to do was have a good drop and they absolutely fucked it all up. It's honestly atrocious how they let some of this stuff in the final version of the song. "Badabing" bullshit, saying "look at you, look at me" over and over again, then throw on another "how you like that" for good measure. It's so laughably bad I straight up feel sorry for the girls. They look great by the way and I'm glad Jennie was spared from the monstrosity that we saw in the video teaser or whatever but hardly matters when the song is so bad. Dance-wise it looked interesting? Nothing too out of the ordinary as far as Black Pink dances go. I'll have to watch the choreography again with the song on mute or something. Consider it average - nothing too exciting or terrible at a first glance.

The worst part is, that trash chorus isn't even the worst part of the song. I'd argue there are two others that are ahead of it on the awful scale. Whoever decided that Black Pink should say "look up in the sky, it's a bird it's a plane" needs to be fucking fired. And ultimately, the final chorus (or attempt at one) is honestly so disheartening. It's a variation on the bland chorus they previously showed but this time complete with literal mumbling. Not even in Korean or English. Like what the actual fuck.

"How You Like That" is one of those moments that prove you should never have expectations. This disappointed on all levels except visually, which is very difficult to do in this day and age with beauties like Jisoo anyway. The only saving grace - and I use that term extremely loosely here - is that apparently this isn't the title track? Supposedly, there are two more songs on the way in the next two months before the full album drops. Black Pink has existed for five fucking years and they're now putting out a studio album. Let that sink in. If Black Pink wasn't under the YG label nobody would give a shit at these half-assed songs that make you wait a year for. Christ, the album better have some fucking bangers lying in wait.