By: ERKIN ESENGELDIEV
Staff Writer
On October 5, 2021, a “monster” rookie K-Pop girl group, Aespa, released their largely anticipated 1st mini-album “Savage” with a title track by the same name. Following their smash hit “Next Level”, the girls continue with their super-heroic narrative, involving AI, a snake villain, and big electric guns. The release gained lots of traction and was praised by critics and fans for its unique sound designs, catchy lyrics, and, especially, for implementing hyperpop genre in K-Pop (find the definition of hyperpop here). As of now, the album has more than 241 million streams on Spotify and 574 thousand copies sold.
Today I wanted to share my thoughts on the mini, review, and rank all of the songs and give a reason for why this is one of the best (in my opinion) releases of 2021. Let’s go!
1. Starting strong, “aenergy” is a perfect intro song for hyping up the crowd at the start of the concert. Shouting vocals and narrative-style lyrics, accompanied by amazing percussion-heavy instrumentals. It’s purposely campy too – the girls literally singing about each of their superpowers within their universe. It’s a solid opening that makes you want to imagine yourself as a part of their world. 8/10
2. “Savage” opens itself in the most engaging way imaginable. “Oh My God, Don’t You Know I’m a Savage?” has become an iconic line that catches you right into that wild clunky soundscape that has become synonymous with the hyperpop genre. Instrumentals in this song feel epically 8-bit, fusing dramatic melody with the heavenly vocals, only to once again fall into the sharp and drilling, construction-like chorus. I like this song a lot, but I understand when someone calls it jarring and messy. It works for me though, as I find this type of messiness fitting to the concept and idea behind the piece. It’s catchy, interesting, and complex. 9/10
3. Next song, “I’ll Make You Cry” is a dance-pop revenge anthem with pulsating synths and bass, much like in “aenergy” strong vocals and heavy bouncy rhythm in the chorus contribute well to the aesthetics of the composition. There’s nothing wrong with the song, I personally enjoy it for its edgy sound and the charisma the members pronounce their lines with, but it’s definitely not the strongest in the album, which indicates that the release is holistically exceptional. 8/10
4. Energetic, happy, and bubble-gums – the words I would use to describe “Yeppi Yeppi”, one of the most beloved b-sides on this EP. “Yeppi Yeppi’s” sound design is like trying all the rides in an amusement park, every segment of the song uses different samples and plays on different rhythms, switching genres and attitudes. This song is a true celebration of this hardly defined quirky K-pop style that sucks you into this whimsical fantasy world. At first, I thought it wasn’t fitting into the identity the album was building up for itself, but now I don’t have much concern – sci-fi is there, exaggeration is there, and trap and hyper-pop influences are there. The only difference here is the major key the song was written in, which still feels refreshing and unique. 9/10
5. “ICONIC” continues the chime odyssey started by “Savage”. Minimalistic but rich, clean instrumental with much more velvety line delivery. This song is very simple at its core – no convoluted structures and beat changes, no exaggerated samples. This is something you would play at a fashion show. It might not be as imaginable or complex as other songs, but the simplicity is what allured me here. 9/10
6. This Aespa’s take on electro-pop RnB was something else. I can’t describe how attached I grew to this track, how amazed I was when I first listened to “Lucid Dream”. The aftermath of a party the “Savage” was, this song is another side of Aespa – sensitive, lyrical, and dream-like. This is the type of sadness you feel in the cyberpop universe, futuristic melancholy. The melody is driven by emotions, you can feel the beat and percussion pulsating in your head, each section not abrupting but blending into each other, creating an atmosphere that is only disturbed when the song ends. This song is so fun to listen to, when you seemingly unpeeled all of its layers, only to realize that there’s something else you missed. That song has never left my daily playlist from the day I listened to it. 10/10
Conclusion:
Everything in the album works, you can truly see that whoever was directing the release had a clear image in their head, they knew what they wanted to achieve in building Aespa’s identity as artists and what had to be done for it. There are no objectively bad songs, the production behind each track was well-polished, and nothing felt out of place. Every song is its own scenario, acted out in one world, one universe of sounds and characters – true cohesion. A holistic masterpiece, “Savage” manages to implement new trends, as seen in the current popularization of hyper-pop in the South Korean Music industry, and most importantly – be good at executing them 10/10.
i agree