Girls

The record

Girls is aespa’s second mini-album, released on 8 July 2022 with nine tracks and ‘Girls’ as its title track.

SM Entertainment’s album introduction says the record puts six new songs beside three the group had already released — ‘Black Mamba’, ‘Forever (약속)’ and ‘Dreams Come True’ — for nine in all. The same text says the title track closes the first season of the group’s story, and that ‘도깨비불 (Illusion)’, put out on 1 June, is on the record too.

The music video went up on the official SMTOWN channel the same day.

Reviews

Abbie Aitken reviewed the record for the British music magazine Clash on the day of release and scored it 7 out of 10. “‘Girls – The 2nd Mini Album’ projects aespa into a whole new realm,” she wrote. “Compared to previous releases, ‘Girls’ sees the group dip their toes into a host of new genres, yet keeps their futuristic sound as their main focal point.” Of the title track: “Lead single ‘Girls’ feels metallic. A sheen of slick guitars and aggressive synths entrance a listener.”

Kristine Kwak reviewed it the same day for Rolling Stone. “It’s almost hard to believe that Girls is only Aespa’s second mini-album,” she wrote, and found that it “includes everything one could want from an Aespa record– heavy synth beats, strong piercing vocals, visuals that don’t give you a second to blink.”

Binunmul took the record for the monthly albums column of the Korean idol-pop webzine Idology (아이돌로지). Of the title track, she wrote that ‘Girls’ drags classic SMP back into the present without the irregular construction of ‘Next Level’, and that because it is a faithful reproduction of the sort the debut single ‘Black Mamba’ calls to mind, it is a welcome sound for the label’s longest-standing listeners. The song also has new and enjoyable devices, she added, among them the range of vocal sounds that give it its flavour.

The Singles Jukebox, where British and American music writers each file a short note on one single, covered the title track on 30 August 2022. Jacob Sujin Kuppermann wrote that “anyone else would be left with pure incoherence — the aespa girls manage to turn it into an arsenal of hits, dramatic but not so overburdened with purpose that it doesn’t work as a banger.” Joshua Minsoo Kim wrote: “It works here because it’s a dazzling spectacle: listen to the guitar crunch, trace the flagellating synth horn melody, feel the drama of its stripped-down bridge before it tumbles into a ferocious instrumental break.”

On the same page Alex Ostroff wrote that “other tracks might combine girl group vocals with four-on-the-floor handclaps and late-nite spooky synths, or grinding bass with sudden abrasive intrusions of guitar, or slightly out-of-tune saxophone-esque loops, but ‘Girls’ just melds them all together and makes it sound natural.” Alfred Soto wrote: “Guitar slashing, hand claps, horror film piano tinkle, vocals as savage as speakers at a political convention — ‘Girls’ has so much going on without exhausting me.”

Among the tracks

‘도깨비불 (Illusion)’ was released ahead of the record, on 1 June. Idology’s Binunmul wrote that it inherits the original sound aespa first showed on ‘자각몽’ from the first mini-album Savage, and shows what the group can do without KWANGYA or SMP. It has every element a listener would expect of an aespa song, she added — a memorable point routine, fresh material, the members’ vocal blend and a range of effects — while dissolving the dreamlike, mysterious mood of ‘자각몽’ into them and so neutralising the sharp metallic edge stamped on the group.

Of ‘ICU (쉬어가도 돼)’, Clash wrote: “‘ICU’ welcomes a soothing ballad brimming with friendship and alliance. A folk-like guitar changes the tempo of the energetic project.” Idology’s Binunmul heard in the same song a growth in the members’ voices, now blending without awkwardness. Rolling Stone’s Kristine Kwak reported that Giselle and Winter both named it a personal favourite, and wrote that its message “emphasizes the importance of making sure to take a step back and rest in the midst of busy times.”

‘Life’s Too Short’ came out as a stand-alone single two weeks before the record, on 24 June. Clash read it as “an anthem of self-assurance” and aespa’s first English-language song, one that steps away from the science-fiction sound of the other tracks and opens on a simple guitar riff. Of ‘Lingo’, Rolling Stone’s Kristine Kwak wrote that it “is a bit more experimental by meshing pop with country, a genre rarely featured in K-pop, but it’s addictive nonetheless.”

The closing track, ‘Dreams Come True’, is a remake of a 1998 song. Clash wrote that it “highlights aespa’s investment in futuristic asthetic whilst paying homage to the captivating original.”