Savage

The record

Savage is aespa’s first mini album, released on 5 October 2021 with six tracks. The title track shares the record’s name. It follows the debut single ‘Black Mamba’ of November 2020 and the single ‘Next Level’ of May 2021, and is the group’s first physical release.

The album introduction on Bugs describes the title track as trap built around drums and bass, and says this is the first physical record the group has put out since its debut. The same text describes the intro track ‘aenergy’ as the song that sets out each member’s character within the group’s universe.

Reviews

Idology (아이돌로지) ran the record in ‘Monthly’, its column on the releases of October 2021, where two writers each filed a note. Quibi opened with “in a word, this is SM taking the old and making it new”, and wrote that “through a debut EP in which SM’s musical ambition takes on a fuller shape, the group has secured a standing nobody can deny”. Simdyang, who read the record’s task as how interestingly it could present the group’s universe, wrote that “the SM way of building a classic of one’s own — an old future, as it is called — applies to aespa in 2021 as well, and carries out that mission with room to spare”. Of Kwangya, the record’s fictional setting, he wrote that it is “an album enough to soften the doubt that KWANGYA is merely an empty invention”.

NME ran a review by Carmen Chin. She wrote that “this new six-track record is another step toward success for the girl group, refining their trademark sound and hinting at the rapid, upward trajectory aespa find themselves on”, and closed by writing that the record “digs deep to traverse beyond the boundaries of K-pop and is indisputable evidence of aespa’s proclivity for expectation-bending sounds and visuals”.

Among the tracks

Of the title track ‘Savage’, Chin wrote that “hip-hop beats are fused with crunchy hyperpop synths on the record’s title track of the same name”, and that the song “is brimming with addictive hooks and refrains that sit on top of masterfully layered production, further perfecting the edginess the quartet had already grounded themselves in”. Quibi wrote that this track and ‘ICONIC’ put the cut of hyperpop into the grammar of K-pop through metallic sound and a blunt sense of impact.

Of the intro ‘aenergy’, Chin wrote that “it’s an apt introduction to the fictional world that came with the group and of their individual characters”, and that the song “is rife with chant-like refrains and hard-hitting beats that make for a spell-binding listen, despite its rather cryptic lyrics”. The same review says that “‘I’ll Make You Cry’ comes alive with woozy electronic synths and thumping beats”. Quibi took those two tracks together with ‘YEPPI YEPPI’: “the intro track ‘aenergy’, which lays the groundwork of the universe in a shout, and the outro track ‘Lucid Dream’, dreamlike without letting the tension go slack, both do their work, and ‘YEPPI YEPPI’, a bright dance track on a single-line narrative, provides a cushion in the middle of an album that is solemn enough to be read as difficult.”

The closing track ‘Lucid Dream’ also appears in Idology’s round-up of its writers’ personal lists for 2021, published on 31 January 2022. Gathering the year’s girl-group B-sides, Binunmul wrote that the song “shines in a grain entirely its own on an album that was ‘Savage’ all through”. Chin names the American singer-songwriter Hayley Kiyoko as a co-writer of the track and wrote that “on a record full of powerful songs, this track is a perfect breath of fresh air”.

Numbers

Idology placed the record on its ten albums of the year for 2021, published on 31 December 2021. The text of that entry 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 second mini album Girls in July 2022.