aespa’s back-to-back run of ‘Supernova’, ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Whiplash’ in 2024 – every a ubiquitous hit in its personal proper – elevated the already in style lady group to the following stage. However Okay-pop’s highlight may be unforgiving, and lacklustre follow-ups ‘Wealthy Man’ and ‘Soiled Work’ have dimmed the quartet’s shine. The stress heading into aespa’s second album ‘Lemonade’, then, comes from a model of themselves that had beforehand put them in a league of their very own.
Album opener ‘WDA (Entire Totally different Animal)’ doesn’t waste time with preamble. That includes Okay-pop royalty G-Dragon, the observe does extra than simply set the tone for the album with overflowing confidence, it additionally establishes the phrases of their “new period”: “Embrace the hazard, kiss, kiss the stress”, Ningning declares moments into the hip-hop dance quantity that’s anchored by a synth-heavy bassline.
Throughout ‘Lemonade’, the concept of resilience underneath stress bubbles up in several varieties. They coolly deflect criticism on the rock-drenched ‘Can’t Assist Myself’, a standout second that wholly embraces the style with distorted guitars and a showcase of vocal prowess that had felt conspicuously absent on their latest releases. Then, they “change it up” on the dangerously magnetic ‘Switchblade’ – the weapon a metaphor for being adaptable within the face of stress – with deliberate, restrained vocals in opposition to an explosive digital manufacturing.
However the purest type of the album’s core theme arrives on the album’s namesake. When life offers you lemons, the saying goes, the 4 Okay-pop stars cheekily sing, “ain’t received no ETA-TA-TA, I’ll make it lemonade”, serving up no matter life might throw at them on their very own phrases. Whereas the title observe’s digital dance sound lands in well-worn territory, it’s contrasted by an infectious, bubbly angle not in contrast to aespa’s very personal 2023 single ‘Spicy’, a second that some followers mark as the actual daybreak of the lady group’s dominance.
For all its conviction, ‘Lemonade’ isn’t with out its bitter notes – and right here’s the place the album begins to crumble underneath the stress. Probably the most irritating is ‘Camouflage’, a hyperpop reduce draped in dreampop synths that shortly loses its nerve, promising two sounds however absolutely committing to neither. Decrease nonetheless sits the overambitious ‘Roll’, with its misguided hook that interpolates the traditional ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ nursery rhyme. ‘My Plan’ fares higher, competently highlighting their vocal versatility as they cruise alongside its easy R&B soundscape, however these songs are album filler all the identical.
When ‘Lemonade’ works, it does so with the sort of self-assurance that reminds you why aespa grew to become such superstars within the first place. That recipe of confidence, skill and gumption is clearly nonetheless in them, but the album’s stumbles consistently go away you questioning if they’re actually including to their spectacular legacy – or simply coasting on it.
Particulars
- Document label: SM Leisure
- Launch date: Could 29, 2026
