AIRYeji of ITZY's first solo mini album, out on 10 March 2025 with four songs. IZM, Billboard, Clash and Paste all wrote about it.
AIR is Yeji of ITZY’s first solo mini album, released on 10 March 2025. It carries four songs — the title track ‘Air’, ‘Invasion’, ‘Can’t Slow Me, No’ and ‘258’. News1 reported that Yeji, the first ITZY member to release a solo record, took part in writing the title track.
The album introduction describes ‘Air’ as synth-pop built on a hook that catches, and credits J.Y. Park among those who worked on it. The same text names danke, Lee Woo-min “collapsedone”, Noday and Ryan Jhun among the writers on the other three songs.
Han Seong-hyeon covered the record for IZM on 24 March 2025. Of the closing track he wrote that “‘258’, which is not pushed around by its quick tempo and puts a distinctive tone up front, opens a possibility at the end”, and called it “the song that gives her shape as a solo artist even with other singers’ precedents and the label’s own colour set aside”.
Jeff Benjamin placed the title track at number 20 in Billboard’s 20 best K-pop songs of the first half of 2025, published on 21 July 2025. Lyrics across the chorus, he wrote, “transform a personal passion into a universal metaphor for all-consuming experience, from dancing and singing to falling in love”.
Natalia Kabenge put the record at number four in Clash’s 15 biggest K-pop statements of 2025, published on 19 December 2025. “Pulsating melodies grounded in ’80s inspired basslines make it incredibly easy to lose yourself to the music,” she wrote, and called the title track “a beautifully woven puzzle that takes advantage of its layered elements to build to a dramatic final chorus”.
Kayti Burt placed the title track at number eight in Paste’s 20 best K-pop songs of 2025, published on 30 December 2025: “‘Air’ harnesses an upbeat, strut-worthy groove, powerful vocals, and the classic tale of a love that takes one’s breath away for a dance-pop experience that is as catchy as it is sonically rewarding.”
‘Air’ is the track all four pieces name. The album introduction gives the performance as the thing to watch, and Jeff Benjamin introduced the song as a synth-pop single “dedicated to her love of dance and her immersion in the art form”.
‘258’, the closing track, is the one IZM took up on its own; Han Seong-hyeon heard it holding its own against a quick tempo with a tone of its own. Of the second track, ‘Invasion’, the album introduction says a strong synth-pop sound and a funky guitar melody carry it.
Circle Chart placed the record at number three on its album chart for week 11 of 2025 (9 to 15 March), the week of release, on 227,890 copies for the week. The POCA edition charted separately at number 12 that week, on 44,961 copies.
Claims in this story link to official or primary sources.
Yuna of ITZY made her solo debut on 23 March 2026 with her first mini album Ice Cream, seven years after the group's debut and second among ITZY members after Yeji. The four tracks, what she said at the showcase, the first-day charts and the Infinix ambassadorship of the 3rd, in date order.
