Following the success of “APT.” featuring Bruno Mars, it was a no-brainer that Rosé from BLACKPINK, the “golden voice of Korea,” would deliver a beautiful, gut-wrenching studio debut. Her solo album, appropriately named rosie, dropped Friday.

With their solos, fans have seen a new side to BLACKPINK. The vulnerability Rosé showcases in this album was unexpected from any member of the group.

I have always appreciated the emotion in Rosé’s voice when she sings a love song. But after releasing  “number one girl” as a pre-release single, there’s a new sense of desperation beneath her lyrics. She takes her art to new depths as she belts “Well, isn’t lonely? / I’d do anything to make you want me.”

In “stay a little longer,” Rosé sings a similar theme of pleading to her lover. However, this one hits harder and its intensity makes it my favorite song on the album.

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Though she always sings in the second person, her message is direct as she begs her lover not to leave her in pieces. The constant use of “babe” coupled with prominent piano throughout the song adds to the heartfelt and intimate tone.

Another song with beautiful instrumentals is “too bad for us.” Here, Rosé seems to finally come to terms with the end of her relationship. It’s fitting as the second to last song on the album, showing that she is reaching the end of her healing process.

She sings “In the desert of us, all our tears turned to dust / Now the roses don’t grow here.” The reference to roses is perfect. It likely means that in the relationship, the roses — which likely represent her — can’t bloom as they are supposed to. 

Speaking of toxicity, Rosé released a 90s-film style music video for the song “toxic till the end,” featuring angsty lyrics and a synth beat reminiscent of 2000s alt-pop. The song’s climax is the bridge, where she angrily sings about all the damage he’s done to her and laments “wasting her prettiest years.”

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Alongside stunning vocals, Rosé proves her exceptional songwriting skills as she intertwines stories across multiple songs. The songs “two years” and “gameboy” are the sequel of her 2021 song “Gone” from her previous single album, R.

In “two years,” she references the original song with the line, “It’s been two years and you’re still not gone.” The math is mathing, given that she said she began working on this album after the Born Pink World Tour ended in 2023. Rosé continues in “gameboy” by singing, “Two years, now I understand it.” 

The songs create a perfect trilogy, with “Gone” about the recent breakup, “two years” about feeling the pain even after all this time and “gameboy” about slowly moving forward and realizing it isn’t worth the tears.

The trials of love have never felt more real. When Rosé announced the album two months ago, she said she poured her “blood and tears into this album,” and it shows.