Song Review: BLACKPINK – Jump

There are few things in this world that go together worse than oil and water. One of those is me and posting consistently. The other-similarly-is Blackpink and releasing music consistently. Excluding the tiny detail that the girls are incredibly good looking global superstars, you could say we’re the same! But, almost as if the heavens have parted and the river styx has frozen over, we have both of us making our grand returns on the same day. How poetic.

Blackpink have always been abit of an anomaly to me. From the haphazard release schedule to the varying music quality, their massive popularity and unrelenting fandom have always struck me as a complete antithesis to traditional K-pop culture. I guess in many ways those facts alone are what make them so alluring. It’s been a near 3 year wait since 2022’s middling Shut Down but the girls have smartly kept their names ever-present on the fringes of pop culture through solo efforts of varying popularity and quality. Of these efforts, both Jennie and Rośe delivered the most cohesive and engaging projects in my eyes. From the boisterous vitality of APT to the Taylor Swift-esque musings of Toxic Till the End, “Rosie” hit some of my own personal musical soft spots while the cohesive collection of tracks on “Ruby” persisted on my playlists far longer than expected. These detours have now all culminated in the groups long awaited comeback single, Jump (뛰어).

It’s been a while since a Blackpink song has had such a convincing dance-floor drive. The girls have often attempted to deliver “bangers” in the past but have undercut themselves with lurching centrepieces, repetitive hooks or uninspiring production choices. Jump doesn’t fully forgo those negative tendencies but it supplements them with a killer interpolation and sample of Da Hool’s Meet Her At The Love Parade. This one touch absolutely propels the otherwise solid hook into an excellent club banger centrepiece, twisting the original just enough to feel perfectly in-line with the surrounding verses. The extra bass is always a plus and despite the mostly instrumental chorus, the eccentricity of the rubbery beat propels it forward with aplomb. It’s one of the stronger hooks we’ve gotten from the girls, one that feels like a great middle ground between nostalgic and trendy. And while a more melodic hook (~ala As If It’s Your Last) might have sent this over the edge, I feel that by letting the instrumentation breathe the track comes across as a lot more punchy and potent. I much prefer how they trace the melody here than the “bramapapams” or “thisthatpinkvenomgetemgetemgetem”‘s of the past.

If anything, I wish Jump went harder. The propulsive production is exciting but in many cases it feels as though it’s holding back unnecessarily. The producers are clearly attempting to emulate the more expressive and euphoric dance tracks from artists like Charli XCX or Fred Again but it just doesn’t have the necessary bite to fully get there. The performances are solid but lack the necessary verve to really elevate itself past the propulsive instrumental. It promises a thrilling build near the climax but simply doesn’t commit strongly enough to the hardstyle. The final 20 seconds come across more like an unfinished demo. Building blocks for what could have been something genuinely thrilling. Given a stronger, and more robust extended climax (exhibit A, exhibit B), Jump could have presented itself as one of the songs of the summer. Instead we have to settle for a quite solid dance track that stands as easily the strongest Blackpink effort since Lovesick Girls. You can count me as a fan of this one.

Verses: 8

Chorus: 8

Production: 9

Performance: 8

Final Rating: 8.25 / 10