On July 8, 2022, aespa finally dropped their highly anticipated second mini-album, Girls , alongside its hard-hitting title track of the same name. For nearly two years, the quartet—Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning—had dominated the fourth-generation landscape with a futuristic “Metalverse” concept, complete with avatars, lore about the digital world of KWANGYA, and nemesis the Black Mamba.
Illusion (first), then Girls (for the lore). Skip if: You hate EDM drops with no melody. aespa - Girls
But with Girls , the group faced a unique pressure: following up the colossal, culture-shifting success of Next Level and the addictive chant of Savage . So, did aespa stick the landing, or did the lore finally swallow the song? On July 8, 2022, aespa finally dropped their
If Girls is the end of the beginning, we are ready for Act 2. Skip if: You hate EDM drops with no melody
It’s a grower, not a shower. The production is immaculate (listen on good headphones for the bass layering), but it sacrifices accessibility for cinematic scale. The Lore: Finally, A Conclusion? If you haven’t been keeping a notebook next to you while listening to aespa, you might be lost. Girls is the finale of the first chapter of the SMCU (SM Culture Universe).
For two years, we’ve watched the girls train to defeat the Black Mamba, a virus corrupting their digital world. The Girls music video is a $5 million anime OVA come to life. We get light sabers, mech suits, dragons (Ningning literally rides a dragon), and a final, cathartic explosion that vaporizes their enemy.