Yes, it’s been months and we’ve all pretty much moved on from this album, but this is something i’ve been wanting to discuss for a minute now and decided why not lol. As an album, Alter Ego was met with mixed reviews. Some people love it, some hate it, some don’t care for it. I wanna talk more about misconceptions and expectations that many critics had. Specifically its authenticity and how it shows who Lisa is both as an artist and a performer. The concept is pretty straightforward. Five characters (or Alter Egos) all who represent facets of Lisa both the person and the artist. Each Alter Ego has her own style, story, theme, and set of songs on the album. This concept garnered criticism. Biographies aside, many saw this concept as childish, not authentic, and others viewed it as creative and fun. I personally thought it was a fun concept for her. While I do agree five characters may have been too much, I don’t actually mind it. This goes into another one of the album’s criticisms. The lack of cohesion. On the surface, yes, the album itself isn’t the most cohesive unless you understand the concept she’s using. This also ties into the lack of “authenticity”. Here’s where I wanna say one thing, Lisa herself NEVER stated Alter Ego would be an introspective look into her neither would it be an album where she’d be spilling personal stories. If you actually watch her interviews and read the magazines she’s done, the story behind the album is pretty simple. As she was just recording songs, Lisa found herself having so much fun that she and her team decided to build an album using various genres, sounds, and themes and built the Alter Ego concept around it. This album wasn’t for Lisa to tell personal stories. It was meant as a way to show the world what she could do. The way she could switch genres and sound good doing all of them. Her solo era was never to tell personal stories. It was to experiment. This also had its own criticisms. Prior to the announcement of the album, many claimed she didn’t have a signature sound or image. That’s the entire point. From Rockstar all the way to Alter Ego, Lisa’s been experimenting sounds, styles, genres, looks, etc. Personally, I feel like when the album released, many were simply looking for something that was never gonna be there. Alter Ego isn’t an introspective look into who Lalisa is. It’s an album where Lisa shows the world that she can easily switch between pop to hip hop to ballads, etc. Whether her next album continues this theme or she tries something else is up to her. Lisa has always been a performer first. It’s what she does. She shines on the stage. And what better way to emphasize that than by trying out new and different things. Getting out of her comfort zone. While she’s been in the industry for essentially a decade now, her solo career is till rather young. It’s all about trial and error. Now that’s not to say i don’t acknowledge criticisms. Her rollout could’ve been so much better and I will even admit as a massive fan, the album is carried by the concept and production. The lyricism isn’t the albums strongest area but that’s not the worst thing in the world. This is the first time we see Lisa as songwriter on a lot of the tracks and whether it’s one her or the teams she wrote with, it’s all about growth. Learning. Not everyone’s gonna be Taylor Swift at the first swing. To end it all, Lisa’s Alter Ego, at least from my eyes months later, isn’t a “bad” or “boring” album. It’s a misunderstood album where she tried something new and some loved it, some didn’t, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. There will never be a song or an album in the world that everyone loves. (anyways i’d love to hear other’s thoughts and opinions on all of this) submitted by /u/Outrageous-Ad7806
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