MY WORLD

The record

MY WORLD is aespa’s third mini album, released on 8 May 2023 with six tracks. The title track is ‘Spicy’. It came about ten months after the second mini album Girls of July 2022.

The album introduction on Bugs says the record carries the second season of the group’s universe. The same text describes the pre-release ‘Welcome To MY World (Feat. nævis)’ as a song calling the helper nævis into the real world, and says ‘Salty & Sweet’ was performed at the group’s first solo concert that February, before the record came out.

Reviews

Idology (아이돌로지) ran the record in ‘Monthly’, its column on the releases of May 2023. Quibi set it in its place as the first album to arrive after the main producer and songwriter left the company, and wrote that, with the terms of the universe stripped out, the album “holds on to the essence of aespa to a surprising degree”. He wrote that “it was a comeback carrying as much worry as expectation, and the result is an album that has taken cleverly only what was worth taking from the legacy”.

Han Seong-hyeon of IZM read the record as a move of setting. He wrote that “leaving Kwangya, the virtual world where they fought the villain Black Mamba, and entering the real world can be read as a will to lower the barrier and win back a place with the wider public”, and of the title track that “as in the music video, where every kind of strange phenomenon happens in an everyday scene, the complicated lyrics of the universe have been put down while the outer skin of stimulating texture is kept”.

NME ran a review by Rhian Daly. Noting that half of the record had already been heard at the February concerts, she wrote that the recorded versions are “exciting additions to the aespa canon, showing their versatility and helping the quartet make a bid for main pop girl status with their infectious hooks and impeccable performances”. She wrote that the record “might water down the layers of SM Culture Universe in its songs, but it doesn’t dilute the sound that aespa have become known for”.

Clash, from the same country, ran a review by Sharifa Charles and gave the record 8 out of 10. She wrote that “overall, the third mini-album of aespa, ‘My World’, is a remarkable showcase of the group’s versatile talent”, and that “the album features various genres, captivating beats, and delightful vocals”.

Among the tracks

The pre-release ‘Welcome To MY World (Feat. nævis)’ was covered separately by IZM as a single review before the record came out. Lee Seung-won wrote of its build that “the layered structure, which adds lavish orchestration, and the swell of natural sound give aural shape to the entry into reality and link the directions before and after it clearly”, and that “the members’ vocals, raised in presence by as much as the electronics gave up, are more forceful still”. He closed by calling the song “a new start in fine form, carrying both finish and symbolism”. Sharifa Charles rendered the same track as “a flawless fusion of the quartet’s vocals with dreamy pop synth beats”, and Billboard called it “majestic” synth-pop with a “captivating, curious ‘feature’ from the mysterious AI being within aespa’s lore, Naevis”.

Of the title track ‘Spicy’, Quibi wrote that it “was often taken up as a cool summer dance track along with its high-school imagery, but the more you pull it apart the more you notice the unaccommodating sound aespa has always shown”, and that “the command that plays the listener with jagged sound and jagged structure is the same as it was on ‘Next Level’ and ‘Savage’”. Rhian Daly called the song “a burst of attitude-filled pop that zips and revs and roars”.

Of ‘Salty & Sweet’, Daly wrote that “it’s dark and all the more delicious for it, a seductive slink through the shadows of the group’s world”. Quibi wrote that “‘Salty & Sweet’, the track that follows ‘Spicy’, carries the same line as a dance-pop number whose rattling sound is its charm, and ‘Thirsty’ after it widens the slow, lyrical B-side repertoire the group showed on ‘Lucid Dream’ and elsewhere”. Sharifa Charles rendered ‘I’m Unhappy’ as a track that “boasts a catchy beat and simple production, allowing the lyrics and melodies in the song to shine through”. Paste, in the United States, placed the record on its 20 best K-pop albums of the year and wrote that “‘Spicy’ led the way with vibrant synths and a fire chorus, but it’s the B-sides that stuck with us most”, naming ‘Welcome To MY World’ and ‘Thirsty’ as its examples.

Numbers

Billboard placed the record on its list of the 25 best K-pop albums of 2023, published on 29 December 2023. Jeff Benjamin, who wrote the entry, notes that the record arrived on high expectations after four of its songs were unveiled at the group’s first solo concert that February. Paste placed it eleventh on its own 20 best K-pop albums of the year, published on 21 December. On 5 January 2024 Idology placed the record among its 15 albums of the year and the title track ‘Spicy’ among its 15 songs of the year. The text of both entries is an excerpt reprinted from the earlier ‘Monthly’ note.

Around it

The music video went up on the official SMTOWN channel on the day of release. aespa followed the record with the fourth mini album Drama on 10 November of the same year.