LISA’s ‘Press Play’: All 6 Tracks Ranked

The global diva returns, relaxed and razor-sharp. Hit play, and a six-scene movie unfolds in your ears and behind your eyes. 10/23/2026 LISA Yeyoung Choi LISA is back, and she brought a movie. On Sept. 27, LISA took home best pop at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards for “Dream,” beating a field that included Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo, and becoming the first K-pop soloist to win the category. It added to a run that already included a No. 7 peak on the Billboard 200 with last year’s Alter Ego. Then in September came pre-release single “SaWaDiKa,” which entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 69. Now, with that momentum behind her, LISA unveils her new EP, Press Play. The title comes from a line on “Tarantino”: “It’s a movie baby, come and press play.” It’s a fitting name for a record that hits the eyes as hard as the ears. Press play and the scenes flash by: a tuk-tuk weaving through the streets of Bangkok, a Ferrari tearing around a circuit, a dance floor after midnight, a motel straight out of a Tarantino film, a yoga studio. LISA holds a songwriting credit on every track, and Kuk Harrell, the vocal producer behind Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” worked on vocal production. Rap and sing-rap dominate much of the record, but each track carries its own texture, so it never drags. The world should get ready for the movie LISA has brought with her. Below, Billboard Korea ranks all six tracks on Press Play. “Cut U Off” “Cut U Off” opens with one of cinema’s most famous whistles: the tune Elle Driver whistles as she walks down a hospital corridor in a nurse’s uniform, on her way to kill the Bride in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003). Paired with LISA’s blade-sharp opening bars (“Chop chop,” “Master of sashimi”), it makes for a thrilling, suspenseful start. LISA reframes the thrill of revenge at the heart of Kill Bill as the satisfaction of cutting someone off for good, delivering every line cool and unbothered. Past that striking intro, though, the track settles into easy-listening territory and doesn’t quite sustain the tension it opens with. Still, it’s a solid album cut that does its job. “Sweat” Picture doing yoga while floating in zero gravity, following LISA’s every cue, and you have “Sweat,” a dreamy, otherworldly track. Each time her loose but bouncy “Stretch it out,” “Don’t stress me out” lands in your ear, your body loosens one beat at a time. Even as the stretching cues repeat rhythmically, she keeps varying her flow, so the song stays engaging to the end. A playful, flirtatious streak (“Now make me your muse”) hums underneath, so the track never feels flat. And when LISA, who has already declared “Yoga is my antidote,” finally offers “Inhale, exhale,” a wave of relief washes in. Whatever reality you’re living, it’s OK to pause and catch your breath. It plays like the end credits of a movie that’s been racing at full speed. “Tarantino” This is where the EP’s world-building is most explicit. “Got my nails really long like the barrel of my gun,” LISA opens, a witty first line that instantly turns her glamorous manicure into a prop from a Tarantino film. Over sound effects that evoke a swinging blade, she calls up the director’s filmography one reference after another: Kill Bill, Death Proof, a katana, even “Hollywood in your hands.” “Mustard all on my sneakers” summons the Bride’s yellow tracksuit, while “black suit” conjures his sharp-dressed gangsters. It’s a song you hear but also see. And slipping some Thai flavor into the mix (“At the drive-thru Thai funk shaking out the trunk”) is pure LISA. Production comes from two Dutch-born producers. Thom Bridges, who also produced “SaWaDiKa,” is a dance music veteran who worked on Yellow Claw’s Blood for Mercy, a No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and has collaborated with David Guetta and Steve Aoki. He’s joined by Beau Nox, who co-wrote and co-produced five tracks on Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind, including “Falling Back.” A Tarantino world built by producers who’ve spent years lighting up clubs is enticing before you even hit play. The song gave the EP its name, but for sheer ear-grabbing power, “V12” edges it out. “V12” “V12” is full of twists. LISA opens by murmuring the syllable “Sa,” in a mood that’s at once reverent and laced with her signature mischief. In Thai, “sa” can mean “bold” or “sharp,” and in the Isan dialect it can mean “widely talked about.” Just as you start savoring those layers, she flips the sound to “Sike” (as in “psych”) and turns the mood on its head. As “Sa” and “Sike” trade places, a thudding beat and a low voice announcing “V12” slowly build the anticipation. When LISA finally arrives, she’s relaxed and commanding. As she raps at an unhurried pace, the line between her and the V12 engine, the beating heart of a high-performance supercar, starts to blur. Obsessive attention to detail, like 12 cylinders machined to mesh perfectly (“Devil in the details”), without chasing perfection itself (“I don’t chase perfection”). A rarity you can’t buy off the shelf (“Couldn’t cop this at retail”). Overwhelming power at full throttle. The V12 engine is LISA herself, which is why “You should be impressed” doesn’t sound like a boast. The track is produced by Dem Jointz, who worked on Dr. Dre’s Compton and is familiar to K-pop fans through his work with NCT 127, among others. Listening feels like riding shotgun in the indigo Ferrari she brags about on “SaWaDiKa,” leaning back as she takes a slow lap around the track. “Cobra” “Dance / floor / Tempo / Fast / Slow / Go.” A hook built from single words tossed out one at a time couldn’t be simpler, and that’s exactly what makes it clever. One listen and your body starts counting the beat on its own. The melodies are smooth throughout, and the pre-chorus (“Hold up / This place about to go up”) instantly raises the temperature in the club. A sound that wails like an ambulance siren adds a fresh twist. The scene writes itself: 10 after midnight, LISA speeding to the party in a matte black truck, because, as she puts it, “the party don’t start till we roll up.” Produced by Johnny Goldstein, the track interpolates Missy Elliott and Timbaland’s 2003 “Bomb Intro/Pass That Dutch,” pulling in the air of an early-2000s hip-hop club. “Tequila mixed with soda / Got me moving like a cobra.” It’s a track that makes you want to twist like a cobra and dance along. “SaWaDiKa” The undisputed No. 1. The confidence that made it the pre-release single runs through every second. Assured rapping and vocals lock together, and the “Hello Sawadika” hook is irresistible enough to charm the whole world. “La la Lisa la diva / Sawadika there she go.” Has there ever been a cleaner self-introduction? Just as striking is how boldly she wears her Thai identity. On the second verse, LISA shouts “Bang bang Bangkok bang” and yells “geng mak,” Thai for “so good,” with her crew. Baht piling up in the bank, donuts in a tuk-tuk: the heart of Bangkok unfolds in full color. Mid-song, the repeated questions “How many got discipline / How many that been where I been” call to mind the road she has traveled from a girl in Buriram, Thailand, to global diva. Thom Bridges and Ojivolta produced the track. Ojivolta, the New York duo who won the Grammy for best rap song with Kanye West’s “Jail” and helped craft hits for The Weeknd and Justin Bieber, also have BLACKPINK ties: they co-wrote and co-produced ROSÉ’s “On the Ground” and “BADGRRRL” from LISA’s Alter Ego. With Ojivolta back in the fold, already well versed in her strengths, the result is a fearless greeting. It’s the movie’s opening sequence, and the song that best sums up the EP. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox Sign Up