The esteemed K-Pop girl group, aespa, doesn’t stop. They’ve had an incredibly productive year, with multiple international tours under their belt, releasing their first full-length studio album, “Armageddon“, a maxi-single debuting in Japanese, alongside a collection of 4 songs where each member delighted us with a solo performance. But before the year ends, aespa surprises us with a new release of 6 songs, included in their new mini-album titled “Whiplash”.
aespa’s mini-albums have always been intriguing to me, as I believe their limited nature, not being considered full albums, has allowed the group to be more experimental and diverse with these releases, and “Whiplash”, their fifth mini-album, is no exception: techno, heavy pop, dissonant hip-hop, R&B, and even pop-rock, make an appearance.
The album kicks off with the title track, which is immediately striking. With its electrifying and challenging techno-pop sound, it’s set to captivate the group’s fans and surely win many new followers.
I must say, I love these lines from the lyrics:
"Under pressure, body sweating, can you focus? I deliver. I can promise I'm the coldest."
Undoubtedly, the most intense moment of the mini-album is the song “Kill It”. This is what I would call “heavy techno-pop”. It sounds almost as if a Nu-Metal band like Korn had swapped their 7-string guitars for synthesizers. At times, the music has a dissonant and menacing edge, on which the girls deploy their typical melodic hip-hop with heaps of attitude. It’s definitely worth experiencing.
“Flights, Not Feelings” is one of my favorites from the collection. It’s a pleasant track with a pop sound infused with hip-hop. The vocals are beautiful. Listening to this song feels like a harmonic antidote to the intensity of the previous track.
I really enjoy the chorus lyrics, especially the playful vocal sound when they emphasize the word “burn”:
"Catching flights, not feelings.
I'm not tryna hurt myself, tryna burn myself."
The strangest, most dissonant, and experimental track has to be “Pink Hoodie”. The group showcases hip-hop mixed with some good touches of psychedelic music. I’m not sure what the group’s composers intended with this song, other than perhaps to disorient the listener, but that chorus with its littlo sounds of a DJ on acid on a rave, over which the girls sing the ridiculous lyrics “Pink Hoodie, eh-ohh”, really got on my nerves. Next!
“Flowers”, the mini-album’s ballad, acts as a soothing tonic after the sonic experiment of the previous track. It features an American R&B style with a hint of melancholy, something we’ve heard plenty of times before, yet it’s still an enjoyable listen. Certainly better than “Pink Hoodie”.
The mini-album closes with “Just Another Girl”, a generic pop-rock that’s not far from being like a typical track on an Avril Lavigne album. This song contrasts sharply with the high hip-hop content of the previous tracks. But then again, this is aespa, who have never shied away from musical variety. Indeed, in my opinion, this is one of their greatest strengths, though sometimes they might come across as overly experimental.
And here it is, “Whiplash”. An interesting, far from dull journey, lasting just 18 minutes.
I think aespa’s mini-albums should always be appreciated as non-definitive works. A collection of temporary experiments. Failures and successes. A search for direction. Or perhaps just an excuse to keep fans entertained and engaged, and in this, it succeeds.
aespa can be this and so much more. The group’s musical universe is vast, expansive, young, and seemingly unstoppable. I am incredibly excited to see what comes next.
