A D grade for Jisoo's second solo single of the year
The Bias List has published its verdict on Jisoo's Addicted, and it is a cool one. Nick's review, posted on 29 October, gives the BLACKPINK member's new track a D grade and an overall score of 6.5, broken down as 7 for hooks, 6 for production, 7 for longevity and 6 on the blog's own 'bias' mark.
That is a long way from the generous end of the scale, and it lands on a release that had been trailed as one of the autumn's bigger solo moments.
Addicted had been announced for release on 30 October KST, with teasers for the single shared ahead of time, and it follows Click, the airier pre-release that arrived in early September. The review treats the pair as steps towards something more substantial, though it is honest that the two songs together do not yet sketch a clear picture of what that something might be.
Why does a single review matter this much? Because Jisoo is releasing into a crowded field. BLACKPINK came back in February, and the members have spent much of the year on individual work, which means every solo track is measured both on its own terms and against what bandmates are doing. A critical pan of the hook in one single does not settle anything, but it does set part of the terms of the conversation around it.
Where the review finds Jisoo's advantage
The interesting thing about the review is that it is not a shrug. The Bias List credits Addicted with considerably more personality than its predecessor. Where Click was heard as a track that sanded down its edges into something airy and slightly empty, Addicted is described as repainting Jisoo with more swagger than listeners might expect from her.
The verses get the warmest treatment. They are called relatively full and driving, offering the kind of dancefloor drama the reviewer thinks Jisoo should be leaning into. There is a concession that nothing in those segments is especially novel, but they carry tension, and tension is what makes a listener lean in for the payoff.
That framing is worth noting because it is a compliment about direction as much as execution. The argument is that a Jisoo solo single can carry momentum and attitude, and that when this one does, it works. The disagreement, when it comes, is about what happens next rather than about whether she can hold a track.
The chorus the review says never arrives
The central complaint is structural. The Bias List argues the producers effectively forgot to finish the chorus, leaving a threadbare, repetitive hook that sits closer to speech than to singing, over an instrumental that turns tinny and small. The reviewer reaches for an audio-quality comparison to describe the shift, suggesting the song drops from a full, high-bitrate arrangement into something compressed and brittle without warning.
Anti-drop choruses are hardly unfamiliar in K-pop. Plenty of tracks pull the floor out from under a big verse build, and critics have complained about the technique killing momentum for years. The review's point is that this example goes further than most: the percussion is so slight that the reviewer reaches for trap as a comparison for fullness and finds this barer still.
What makes the criticism sharper is the claim that the bareness is not doing any work. The Bias List says the choice does not appear to serve a particular statement or idea, which is why the section reads as unfinished rather than deliberate. That is a judgement about intent as much as sound, and it is the kind of argument readers can test against their own ears rather than take on trust.
Two pre-releases, and no clear shape yet
Part of what makes Addicted hard to place is the contrast with Click. One is soft-edged and airborne, the other leans into attitude and groove. A listener trying to guess what a fuller Jisoo project sounds like from those two data points has very little to work with, and the review says as much, treating a larger release as a reasonable presumption rather than a confirmed plan.
That uncertainty is not unusual in a rollout built on standalone singles. Pre-releases often exist to test textures and audiences before a body of work is committed to, and the two tracks here could be read as an artist and her team trying on different silhouettes. Whether the finished project inherits the swagger of the verses or the minimalism of the chorus is genuinely open.
For now, the useful reading is that Jisoo's 2026 solo output has range. The disagreement is about which end of that range plays to her strengths, and a second single is a thin sample from which to draw conclusions either way.
Why a solo single carries so much weight this year
Group releases give listeners a spread of voices and roles to hold on to. A solo single does not. It puts one performer's instincts in front of the audience with nothing to share the load, which is why a critique of a hook can read as a critique of direction, and why defenders of a track tend to defend it in terms of identity rather than structure.
That is also why the stakes feel higher than a single grade. BLACKPINK's members have been busy with solo work across 2026, and listeners naturally compare approaches: who is experimenting, who is consolidating, whose songs feel like extensions of the group's sound and whose feel like a separate lane. Addicted argues for a lane with more attitude than Jisoo's previous solo material, and the review's objection is that the song commits to that attitude only halfway.
None of this makes a D grade definitive. It is one outlet's assessment, published quickly, and it sits alongside a range of other listening. But it names a specific problem in a specific place, which is more useful to a reader than a vague thumbs-down.
Listeners are not treating it as a write-off
The responses beneath the review suggest the record is already living a different life from the one the score describes. One reader rated Addicted an 8 out of 10, calling it an earworm likely to stick around for weeks while agreeing with several of the review's criticisms. Another went straight to the chorus, questioning the vocal mixing in that section.
That split is familiar. Analytical reviews tend to weigh structure and payoff, while repeat listeners often reward a hook that lodges itself in the ear regardless of how little is happening underneath it. A chorus that sounds unfinished to a critic can sound purposeful, or simply catchy, to someone playing the track on a commute.
The takeaway is less about who is right than about what the disagreement reveals: Addicted is a song people have opinions about, and the argument is happening in public rather than fizzling out. K-pop solo releases often need that kind of friction to stay in the conversation past the first week.
The verdict, and what to listen for next
The Bias List's D grade is most persuasive as a description of a shape rather than a dismissal of an artist. Its account of the verses, full of drive and dancefloor tension, is an argument for what Jisoo could do more of; its account of the chorus is an argument about where that energy goes missing. Readers can hear both claims in a single playthrough.
The next Jisoo release is where that argument gets resolved. If a fuller project leans into the momentum this review praises and gives its hooks more weight, Addicted may come to sound like a transitional experiment rather than a misstep. If not, the criticism will look prescient. Either way, the track has given listeners something concrete to debate, which is more than most autumn singles manage.
You can keep up with Jisoo's rollout and the wider K-pop release calendar while you listen to K-Beats Radio.
The K-Beats take
A 6.5 does not tell you whether to play a song again; it tells you what one careful listener heard. Addicted has verses with real drive and a chorus that provokes argument, and both facts are worth more than the grade attached to them. The interesting question now is whether the sparse hook turns out to be the point or the problem.
