Review

Song Review: Jisoo (BLACKPINK) – Flower

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Jisoo (BLACKPINK) - FlowerJisoo is the final member of BLACKPINK to make her solo debut, four-and-a-half years since Jennie kicked things off with Solo. Long waiting periods are nothing new for fans of this group (or YG in general), but long hiatuses would be worth it if they resulted in classic material. Sadly, the opposite has occurred. I haven’t enjoyed a single BLACKPINK solo yet, and Flower (꽃) is definitely not changing that.

I remain completely baffled how one of the biggest pop groups on the planet is consistently given such slight, under-formed material. Beat-drop choruses have become normalized in the industry, but it’s rare to hear one as flimsy as Flower’s centerpiece. It’s like the song is trying to lose your attention. There’s just so little here – as if the producers found a sample they liked from a pre-packaged collection and shoved it into the song without any embellishment or idea of how to build upon its sound.

Making matters worse, Flower is a slog. It moves at a glacial pace, its sonic identity muted so thoroughly that it becomes a spy in the shadows, blending with the background for fear of being discovered. That’s not a feature I look for in music, but clearly it holds global appeal. Jisoo has a lovely voice and brings character to the verses, but there’s not much to dig into here, either. The melodies are as ephemeral as the production – pleasant but instantly forgettable.

K-pop has been insanely boring so far this year, and with songs like Flower leading the industry it’s no wonder acts are opting for such underwhelming trends. Where did we go so wrong?

Hooks 5
 Production 7
 Longevity 7
 Bias 5
 RATING 6

Grade: D-

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84 thoughts on “Song Review: Jisoo (BLACKPINK) – Flower”

  1. day 1

    me and the gang went to the garden of flowers in search of the missing chorus. velma pointed at the woman singing beautifully, but i could tell she was just staring at her boobs, as why else would she be looking at the woman that way? as i listened, i knew that this could be the day the missing chorus would be found! i was excited, and shaggy was too

    boy was i wrong

    when the pre-chorus ended, the woman stopped singing and just moved her body. scooby was all pissed and i was too. in fact, i was so pissed i tried ripping out a handful of flowers to smother myself with them, but daphne, with her quick thinking, put some headphones on my ears and played Twice, and i calmed down, knowing my favorite girl group was there to soothe my brain

    still, i was disappointed there was absolutely no chorus to be found in this meadow of flowers, and i havent been back since

    hope for the best for me and my gang…

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  2. As a fan, I’m glad Jisoo chose the songs for the album and that she seems happy with the solo “album”

    As someone who likes music, I really hope Teddy and his producer apprentices at the blacklabel grow some ears eventually.

    This song is soooooo empty and boring. And while that is the point, it’s not something I have any interest in listening to again which sucks…. At least the b-side is a little better

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    • Teddy Park did not produce nor written the melodies for Flower, he did not arrange the song either. He co-wrote the lyrics but he is in the end of the credit list.

      It is trendy to hate on Teddy now. Leave him alone.

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      • It’s not trendy people are just used to him being behind the tracks associated with this group. It says something that people automatically assume it’s his baby cause what’s really the difference? Also he was still apart of the song. Criticism is valid no one needs to leave him alone because no one is doing anything but being frustrated with his work and contribution to blackpink

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  5. the thing i hate about this the most is it checks off the only thing a blackpink release never does: forgettable. yes, it’s pretty and jisoo is charismatic which is ultimately why this song is so dissatisfying. there’s so much potential there but it’s only ever utilized in fits and starts. it seems they’re too comfortable at the top to try something new. regardless, the fans will consume this religiously and she’ll gain plenty of success but i just wish the song in the center of it all wasn’t so hollow.

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    • if that chorus wasn’t a drop i might’ve loved this song… that pre-chorus is elegant and i wish they went with that direction throughout the song

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  6. Musically Blackpink isn’t for me but I do love some of their songs, like Yeah Yeah Yeah, Hard To Love, Playing With Fire and Lovesick Girls.

    I never liked any of the solo’s but I expected to love Jisoo’s solo, especially considering

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  7. The song is decent at best, I actually prefer it over the other solos of her members. The b-side is nice but neither sound like breakout hits. I would give the song 7/10, I kinda like the beat and won’t mind listening to it during travel or if it comes up on radio or playlists.
    BUT, there’s no way this song should get a lower score than ‘Set me free’ and ‘like crazy’. I guess ‘like crazy’ is debatable but Flower is definitely better than ‘set me free’, were u perhaps just too scared of armies to give it a lower score or what lol. Not hating tho, always a fan of ur reviews.

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    • I feel like although set me free was kinda grating, it was less boring and slightly more memorable than this. I’d personally rate this lower than both songs mentioned (although I’d rate set me free at a 6.5)

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    • Personally I don’t like Set Me Free Pt2 (although I do believe it fits beautifully when listening to the mini album as a whole). However, it is at least doing something. Boring and uninteresting it is not. I think that deserves extra points even if it doesn’t work for me.

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    • Why bring up jimin’s solo? Don’t need to bring his solo just to say that jisoo’s solo was just a FLOP and much more worse then his. Anyways, set me free is charting on billboard 😘

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  9. My first thought after I watched this video was “that’s it??” and my second thought was, “Nick is gonna hate this.” This song sounds like Teddy asked an AI to write a knock off version of Solo or Gashina. Jisoo has a lovely voice but there’s no there there! Five minutes after listening to this and I can’t remember a single thing about it. I think YG spent so much time and money on the sets and couture wardrobe and last minute remembered they were making a music video, not a perfume ad, and had to slap something vaguely resembling a song over the top.

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    • Teddy Park did not produce nor write the melodies for Flower, he did not arrange the song either. He co-wrote the lyrics but he is in the end of the credit list. Stop blaming him.

      It is trendy to hate on Teddy now. Leave him alone. Leave Teddy alone!

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      • The thing is…. He still has a lot of the credit for the bad tracks associated with blackpink. Just cause he was a little less involved this time doesn’t change much. I think it says something that a bad blackpink song makes people believe teddy had something to do with it. Also, this man will never read this stuff and negative criticism is valid. So no, we won’t leave him alone. We’re not gonna act like toxic blinks and army’s towards him, but we won’t leave him alone

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    • I was straight up going to write the exact same thing about it seeming like a perfume ad (with a song as an afterthought), but you’ ve beaten me to it!

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  10. Wow this is boring. This just barely exists for 3 minutes and then it’s done. Honestly I don’t know how anyone has any opinions of either song she put out. It’s too boring and sterile to have any opinion on good or bad. They just slide off my brain.

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  11. Not surprised. She’s probably the weakest vocalist in BP, there was no way they’d give her a chorus where she’d actually have to sing. She played it safe and I can’t fault her, but I wish the material was stronger.

    By the way.
    What You Wait For 🤝 On The Ground 🤝 Flower
    They all sit at the same table.

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  12. I think this is going to age the best among all the Black Pink Solos (along with Solo, which funnily enough, has a lot of similarities with Flower). There is something about its verses and prechorus that is compelling even though it probably shouldn’t be. I saw none of the song’s appeal at first listen, so I listened to it again and I already liked it a lot more.

    The chorus is a a bit of a wasted opportunity, but for some reason I like it better than most drops? I didn’t feel the urge in my head that screams, ‘there should be more’ unlike the first time I heard Jennie’s solo. But maybe it is also because of previous exposure.

    Anyway, it isn’t groundbreaking but it is something I would listen to time to time.

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  14. Rosé’s Hard to Love (off the last album) is by far their best solo song. It’s had surprising staying power on my playlists.

    This one… First lines were ABC, Do Re Mi… hopes immediately dashed. Arrangement is just boring. Don’t love the mixing on this one either.

    At this point can we issue an industry-wide moratorium on drop choruses? Please?

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      • Hard agree. Honestly, if they had just read some critics’ reviews of BP’s songs and albums, they would know there is a strong preference and better critical reception for BP songs that have a full chorus like Hard to Love and Lovesick Girls. Flower takes everything fans (well fans that don’t just lap up anything BP puts out) and critics find problematic with their music and growth and puts it into one song. All Eyes On Me is pretty much the same in that regard too.

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  15. I have to admit I had a little bit of hope when the song started, thought it would take an interesting direction, maybe a ethereal song, then came that damn chorus. Honestly, Teddy can just go to hell, he CAN make a full-sing chorus, Lovesick Girls

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    • is there to prove it, but he just won’t do it!
      It could be a little hypocritical, but I do enjoy ‘All Eyes On Me’ more, mostly because I expected that type of sound from her since I heard her covering a Tove Lo song, still… the chorus…

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    • … is there to prove it!
      I could say I liked the b-side more, mostly because I was expecting that type of sound from her, but still has a lazy chorus.

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    • Sad thing is Teddy didn’t even have anything to do with this song other than lyrics. I swear it’s like there is some unspoken rule that BP always needs drop or repetitive choruses. And I agree with you. You could listen to the first minute of this song, maybe less, and know exactly where it was going for the remainder of the song. They needed something in there that subverted listeners’ expectations. Even just fully fleshing out one chorus and giving it a complete melodic vocal line would have helped…. or adding more drama to the bridge. Just anything so the song didn’t feel so monotonous and redundant.

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      • I still blame teddy, he made that trend for the group so now other producers must be like “well blackpink needs their drop”

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  16. one of the best solo’s song from bp member imho. rose comes in first. this one comes in the second place. i dont really get why you rate this lower than set me free. that song feels so atrocious than Flowers. each to their own i guess.
    solid 7,5/10 from me.

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  17. I personally loved it, and that’s only because the hook reminded me of Mo Li Hua 茉莉花 aka Jasmine Flower. The most well known folk song in China. If not for that im sure I’d have different opinion. So far Jisoo is only solo I’ve liked out of all the BP members

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    • If that wasn’t clear, it’s a 10/10 for me due to personal bias for the melody and the melody only. If I wasn’t nerding out and this was any other song, I would’ve complained about the instrumental chorus, the slow pace of the song. But due to that achingly familiar melody, I couldn’t care less about anything else

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    • OMG, thank you, yes, thank you for informing us because I would have had no idea.

      That one chorus line in this song, “Kkothyanggiman namgigo gatdanda” is the main line from the folk song which is also about a flower.

      ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ArWpDSBJw

      But that does not make me like the song better. For me, this song sounds lacks the BP signature sass, and when that is gone there is nothing left compelling to love or hate. Its just there, sitting as a wannabe cover of a more charismatic Sunmi song without any verve. It is hard to believe that Gashina came out 5 years ago, so near and yet so far.

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    • Thank you for saying this! I’m Chinese and when I first heard “Flower”, I could not figure out just what it was that was so reminiscent of my childhood, but your comment made me realise that it was exactly this! While traditional Chinese and Korean folk music/instrumentals are not the same, I feel that they do share some similarities, and the instrumentals in Flower sent me straight back to the good old days of being placed in the front row in class due to not keeping up . . .

      I agree with your whole review pretty much. I’m sure if I was judging this from a different perspective, I’d appreciate it less. But as it stands, I really like the song! My favourite of the BP solos. I personally really enjoyed the aspects of Jisoo’s “Flower” that incorporated traditional Korean elements, as well as the slow steady tempo. I also liked how Jisoo showed some different aspects of her vocals that I think aren’t well highlighted in BP songs. Seeing all the negative reviews here made me kind of disheartened haha, but I’m glad I’m not alone in liking the song!

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  18. I was pretty disappointed by this. I totally expected another drop chorus but I was hoping they’d give Jisoo more to do. She’s my favorite member of blackpink, I love her tone, but this melody is weak and unmemorable. I was enjoying the vibe of the verses, but the pre-chorus feels too familiar and then the drop ruins all the goodwill. I guess the producer finds making a strong hook chorus too hard so they just put a drop in. Regardless, this will get a ton of views and comments and likes and that will be used to act like this is better music than it really is

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  19. I think everyone else has said my thoughts. I wish there was more of, everything, cause I feel like there were more layers then this would’ve been a great song. This is probs the best BP solo song but that isn’t saying much…

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  21. I’m not sure if this will make sense to anyone but me, but here goes. I tried my best to make the explanation of song changes understandable.

    Jisoo looks fantastic. The black floral Dior dress is particularly stunning on her. As for the song, this is not something that sounds like they had 4 1/2 years to choose and put together. It’s also just way too monotonous and we get a drop instead of a fleshed out chorus…. again (AEOM is also a drop).

    Just my opinion, but I think it would have been interesting if they cut out a little bit of the second verse and prechorus and instead built up the instrumental, increased the tempo a bit, and put in a vocal line that was more melodic and urgent (think something with the same sort of vibe as the prechorus of KTL) with a fully fleshed out chorus to add a bit more drama, end it with the last line of the Flower chorus. Stick in a brief pause and pull back again to a bridge and then the final Flower chorus with a bit of a surprise change. Start it the same way, but instead of going into the drop, have the instrumental more fleshed out, add the “eh-eh-eh-eh” from the beginning into the background of it, them slip into an actual melodic chorus again, hard stop, drop the instrumental entirely, and have the final line of the Flower chorus done a cappella.

    There just really needed to be SOMETHING, anything in the song that subverted listeners’ expectations that were set at the beginning of the song so the whole thing didn’t play exactly how you would expect it to go. Even if they just added a complete vocal line for one of the choruses, it would have helped tremendously. Same thing with adding some extra drama to the bridge.

    Just my thoughts.

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  23. No joke, I seriously hope the girls don’t renew and go do their separate thing because YG is just lazy and yet knows it’ll pay off (which it will).

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  26. I’m sorry but jisoo just can’t do solo. Watching the mv is so awkward. Her dance, her vocals, and her presence is all awkward. Sorry

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    • I wouldn’t call it awkward as a whole. it largely felt like “go queen, give us nothing”. Granted there was one dance shot in which she wasn’t lipsyncing, she was just looking into the camera and I thought “girl, what are you doing?!”.

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  27. Listening to this, I don’t even feel whelmed – because overwhelmed would make no sense and underwhelmed suggests a level of expectation no one should have for BP at this point, much less a solo – but it exists so…..yay? For us to have waited all this time for the final solo tho I wish it was more interesting but alas. Maybe the b-side is good but I don’t even feel inclined to find out.

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  29. From being my favorite member to having my least favorite solo. Jennie’s solo is impactful. Rosé’s single is right up to my alley. Lisa’s is catchy. Jisoo’s is just empty and boring.

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  30. The mv gave me deja vu and for a moment i was like am i watching jennie’s solo but it didn’t even deliver on the spunk and sass one associates with blackpink. I think the one redeeming feature is the pre-chorus she sounds the best there, and I quite like the line “all that is left is the scent of the flower” but that’s about it. I’m not sure what genre would suit Jisoo the most since we’ve heard so little from her through BP’s scant discography but this edmy pop isn’t it.

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  32. I hate this. I hoped that YG wouldn’t mistreat her with this solo debut…BUT JUST AS USUAL, I WAS WRONG!!! THIS SO-CALLED CHORUS LITERALLY MADE MY EARS BLEED!😭🤬

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  34. I think the song is not entirely bad, but the production makes it somewhat lethargic. It’s too empty. I’ll be looking up some remixes on youtube some weeks from now because, with a different, much more powerful instrumental and overall production, this could actually sound pretty good.

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  35. I love the way she sounds in All Eyes On Me, but her particular tone is totally misused here. I’m not even her fan but I know she deserved better.

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  36. i don’t see how this is worse than the average kpop song that gets reviewed on this site, especially not jimin’s recent travesties.

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  37. Lol people keep bringing up jimin’s recent tracks. In this case, I have to flip the question back at you: what makes jimin’s tracks worse than the average song on this site? And what makes this song average?

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  38. To me, the biggest issue of the song is the lack of charisma. Nothing against Jisoo, her charisma is what held together Kill This Love, but this song really does not seem to vibe with her strengths, and it all feels kind of amateurish, which is something I should not need to say for a debut on this scale. This feels like a dollar store version of Sunmi’s Gashina, and it all comes down to the performance really.

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  39. I literally said to my friend “I don’t want to be mean but it really is just pretty average”. Like it’s just soo flat and there were barely any emotions in her voice as well. I’m not a blink but I was actually looking forward to Jisoo’s solo debut cos she really deserved it after all these years. But damn the production quality was disappointing.

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  40. The song we all have been waiting for, Jisoo’s solo, FLOWER. First of all, at last. Secondly, what? Third, oh cool.

    Jisoo is my favourite in BLACKPINK so, needless to say, I was deprived for a Jisoo solo. Then, FLOWER dropped. I gave it a listen. I definitely like it, but it does have some things I didn’t like.

    Normally, I don’t like slow songs like FLOWER. But, I liked this one. Maybe it was because I’ve been listening to Muse’s HYSTERIA for three days nonstop so my brain needed some rest, or maybe I was so desperate for her solo, I just instantly liked it. I think Teddy showcased Jisoo’s vocal colours well in FLOWER. The song is elegant and almost ethereal, and Jisoo’s elegant and pleasantly nasal voice really went well with it. Jisoo sounds like a cat under the warm sunshine. Relaxed and with no care about the world around her. I also love that there are flower and plant related words in the lyrics. It seems almost poetic. FLOWER is my favourite BLACKPINK solo alongside with LALISA.

    Now the cons. I agree with a lot of things in the review and the comments. The song is indeed a bit flimsy, and the song really feels like a wilted flower, rather than a flower, vibrant with life. And the chorus. The beat-drop. Honestly, I would be extremely worried if YG released a song that has a full chorus. The electronic sounds and the plucks of the piano (or strings) are reminiscent of SOLO. FLOWER’s beat isn’t as shrill and ear-splitting as SOLO, but it will definitely seem shrill to a lot of people. The last thing I’m a bit sad about FLOWER is that the song is unforgettable, compared to the other solos. It doesn’t have the first-time feeling of SOLO, or the impressive vocals of ON THE GROUND, or the sassy spunk LALISA had. Honestly, if it wasn’t a Jisoo song, people will forget this easily, I dare say. Although I think the song was fitting to Jisoo’s vocals, but I can’t stop feeling underwhelmed, because I anticipated a much better bop than this.

    I like FLOWER better than SOLO or ON THE GROUND, but I do wish Jisoo had a better song than FLOWER. I would give this a C.

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  41. How is this song getting so many view? I wonder. The melody, the mixing, the lyric, the production, even the performance are all empty. Jisoo, you’re a singer, at least look like you’re singing in your MV. You’re not a model who looks pretty in haute couture gown.
    The song made me sad….

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  42. Hey Nick, how do you feel about All Eyes On Me? I much prefer that song and the chorus drop, and thought it aligns more with your taste in music.

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      • Ahh guess we feel the same way.

        Problem with flower is…the melody is actually not bad. Someone made a piano acoustic cover and it’s nice.

        Whoever made the instrumentals though… so lazy and uninspired.

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