LOS ANGELES
LISA does not do quiet rollouts. The BLACKPINK star’s first extended play, Press Play, arrives Friday, October 23 through her own Lloud company and RCA Records, and by the time it lands, the campaign will already have circled the globe: billboards in four cities, a lead single filmed in Bangkok, a late-night television explanation of the concept, a PlayStation teaser and a free pop-up shop in Los Angeles on release weekend. The record itself is compact — six tracks, just over 16 minutes in total — but nothing about the way it is being introduced is small.
The six songs on the six-track EP are “SaWaDiKa,” “V12,” “Cobra,” “Tarantino,” “Cut U Off” and “Sweat,” a sequence that runs from a 3-minute-8-second opener to the 2-minute-19-second “Cobra” and closes at 16 minutes and 10 seconds overall. Press Play is LISA’s first project since her 2025 debut solo album, Alter Ego, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, and it is positioned as the most personal release of her solo career — a short set that traces her journey from her Thai roots to global fame rather than another round of alter egos.
The campaign began with a greeting. A website featuring the word “Hello” in multiple languages counted down to August 24, when LISA announced the EP, its October 23 release date and its cover art. Billboards carrying “Hello / สวัสดำค่ะ” — the Thai greeting sawatdi kha — went up in Bangkok, New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City, tying the era’s visual identity directly to where she comes from and where her audience now lives.
Lead single “SaWaDiKa” arrived in early September and did the introductions. Built on the Thai greeting its title stylizes, the dance-pop track debuted at No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100, and its music video — filmed in Bangkok and directed by Joseph Kahn — generated a reported 70.8 million views in its first 24 hours on YouTube. LISA explained the record’s framing during her first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on September 16: the EP weaves Thai elements through all six songs, and each track features a distinct character. As LISA told Fallon on the show: “It’s like a movie. So you just press play.”
The second single leans all the way into that movie idea. “Tarantino,” announced on October 14, arrives alongside the EP on October 23, landing the same day with its own music video. The song is an explicit homage to director Quentin Tarantino — early teasers nodded to the Kill Bill whistle, and a snippet circulating this week includes LISA herself singing the line, “Got my nails really long like the barrel of my gun and my lipstick all over your face.” On October 20, PlayStation released a 52-second promotional video featuring LISA and a longer preview of the track, extending a partnership that also produced the limited-edition Chroma Pearl DualSense controller she designed, which launches October 30 for $84.99.
Release weekend belongs to Los Angeles. Lloud and technology partner IYK are staging a free Press Play pop-up at 530 N Western Ave on October 23 and 24, open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, with entry by RSVP. The activation is built around the PRESS PLAY SonoTile experience, an interactive audio installation using IYK’s technology, alongside exclusive merchandise and visuals from the new era that have not been released elsewhere. Around the world, selected fans have also been invited to apply for early listening parties through a Sony Music fan registration form, although applying does not guarantee entry. InMusicBlog reported the EP had passed 600,000 pre-saves ahead of release, making it the most pre-saved release on its platform — a measure of how much demand a 16-minute record can carry when the artist is LISA.
The timing puts her in crowded, distinguished company. October 23 is one of the heaviest release days of the fall: John Legend’s Muse, produced entirely by Pharrell Williams, arrives the same day — Previously covered Legend’s Muse and its Pharrell production earlier this month — and Anderson .Paak and Cordae release their collaborative album the same day. LISA’s answer to the pile-up is brevity and saturation: six songs, no filler by design, and an in-person footprint in the city where much of her American audience will hear it first.
It also continues a fall that has kept her in front of American audiences well beyond the charts. Her Viva La LISA Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace expanded to six nights after its first dates sold out in minutes — the subject of Previously’s coverage of the residency expansion — and Press Play slots into that run-up as the new music the residency crowds will be waiting to hear live. For the full catalog and the week’s other releases, see the Music section. Press Play is out Friday, October 23, on Lloud and RCA; “Tarantino” and its video land the same day.
