aespa’s album incohesiveness: is it a problem? 

Personally i don't mind in mini albums/EPs, in a full album your going out of your way to create a strong theme for a body of work, you should follow it through

My world was cohesive enough as a mini album. it starts with Welcome to my world which works as an intro and meets both real world and kwangya world of aespa, then we move to Spicy and end the album with other real world songs. I liked this album a lot. I never could listen to Drama as a whole, haven't had time to listen to Armageddon as a whole yet.

honestly, i really really did want to see a full aespa album, but it would've been best for armageddon to be sliced as a mini album ! there's no way that bahama makes sense with a crazy song like supernova or a hip-hop track like armageddon.. i've seen some people do split albums with part a and part b tracklists though! that would be an efficient solution to explore a gritty aespa (armageddon, mine) and a youthful, cheery aespa (supernova, licorice, live my life)

if u listen to full albums in diverse genres outside of kpop this becomes a ridiculous issue. yes cohesive albums are important.. it’s only in kpop that artists even struggle with this. probly bc kpop is mostly about singles so most kpop albums kinda suck at this

Cohesion in albums is of so many kinds - musical, lyrical, narrative and so on… any one of them is enough to elevate an album. Personally I’m completely fine with a mix bag of songs, but since K-pop focuses on concept it would be amazing to have that reflected in the album

Their most cohesive bodies of work are Savage EP and My World EP. I rest my case.

honestly the issue in kpop is almost always the fact that they have no idea what songs to put on what albums with what concepts, not the songs themselves (with a few exceptions). sometimes even changing the track order would be a massive improvement and yet it's like kpop creative directors don't care or don't understand that

The thing is that you can explore different sounds scapes and still have a cohesive body of work. In that sense, F(x) and Red Velvet had really cohesive bodies of work and were still able to maintain diversity in their projects. Not just them, but the whole Savage EP is pretty cohesive. Armagadeon album would be way of a better run if they cutted some songs out and focused on the y2k and nostalgic/futurisc sound of it. Also, no sense they try to shove down the listeners throat those awfulls and borings ballads that do not match the group at all as EP and the Album closures...If the Album last track was Live My Life it would be way better. Not just that but the whole "but why if this was a decision of the group members", well if they are making bad decisions they should get better at building an album...just beacause it can be a personal decision it don't take the responsability out

I think that Armageddon would have benefitted from having an interlude between Licorice and Bahama, as a way to ease the listener into the second half and in the concept/lore sense you can even use it as a signal that we are leaving Kwangya to go back to the Real World (Like Ateez did with their 2nd full album. The first part is in world Z, so the music reflects the cyberpunk dystopia of Z. We then get an instrumental interlude that signals both a change of music and the return to world A, which is our world. After we get more varied and less intense tracks than the first part, culminating in an outro that ends the album in a beautiful way. And keep in mind that this isn't even my favorite Ateez album by far. It's just a recent example of an album by a lore group that has different sounding halfs but it's well presented and not that jarring to listen to from front to back)

everyone in the world sees cohesiveness as a requirement for a good album 🤷🏻‍♀an album should not be like a playlist

great albums are cohesive 🤷🏻 and i mean *albums* not a collection of songs. If aespa were to drop a mixtape, then bet, they can do a buffet style project, but an album? We need a focused sound 😫 it's a way stronger artistic statement. If this album was cohesive and sounded like the first 3 or 4 songs all the way through, i think aespa could've had a record worthy of real critical praise, but instead we got... uhm... uhm... uhm

I absolutely hate it. I got into aespa because they had a different sound. If I want to hear just another boring pop song I’ll go to the other 80% of the kpop industry. The savage album will always be peak aespa to me as it’s their only body of work that fully sounds like aespa, while still having songs that go up and down and have different energies. It makes me so sad to see a group drop their strong sound and concept.

THANK YOU! I think this is what made me not really like the album. Most songs sounded like standard kpop gg filler songs that are part of every gg’s discography, nothing special. I don’t have an issue with aespa doing cute songs and exploring different sounds but the ones on this album just sounded super generic. Loved Supernova, it’s one of my fav tilte tracks of theirs, but the rest of the album fell flat for me. I really enjoyed Bahama tho.

I personally love cohesive albums, but all that means is other than Savage I'm probably never going to listen through an aespa album after first listen. I'll just listen to the songs I like. I totally think it would be boring to be limited to only kwangya concept, so I definitely understand the lack of cohesion. I almost wonder if they should have released Armageddon with a 'side a' for experimental songs and a 'side b' for the poppier songs on the back half of the album.

savage and my world being their most cohesive albums, and fandom favs for a reason

With reference to their new direction after savage, we haven’t seen the æ members in a looong time which is an interesting addition to the conversation imo

I think people wouldn't have that big of a problem with Aespa incohesiveness in albums (considering that a lot of Kpop albums are just good collections of individual songs) if they weren't from SM. Especially considering that a lot of fans have a high praise when it comes to albums that come from SM. I like Aespa's albums for what they're, but this is more of a personal opinion as an album listener, but at the same time, i can't pretend that every album post Girls (minus My World) are giving me musical whiplash

For me the album cohesion issue is actually impacting my willingness to support the group financially by buying their albums. Drama the track got me excited and hyped for the project and Drama the album let me down. I actually like most of the songs individually but it's just not an album I want to own. Same with Armageddon, which is unfortunate, since I've been looking for a reason to jump in more seriously.

Something I’ve noticed a lot in kpop: They focus on 1 to 2 songs and they play crazy, over the bend with the rest of the tracks just to “fill up” the tracklist and call it an “album”. That’s how Aespa’s albums have been sounding like. I only enjoyed “Supernova” and “Armageddon”, which unapologetically were the ones supposed to be liked by majority of people bc they were well worked. Matter fact, the kpop industry doesn’t have the same view or conception of an “Album” as we do western side.

although i like the album, i agree. I still think that Savage is their best album. i’m sadly used to albums not being cohesive and i understand it here since they got to add some more summer songs.

As an SM fan, I was disappointed to hear Aespa's first full album. There is a huge difference in quality and cohesiveness from Pink Tape or The Red to Armageddon

in my humble opinion, i think this album was rushed. SM and the girls (no offense to them) have been claiming that they have been working on this album for quite a while now, but it doesn't feel that way. This album feels as if it was put together last minute, and coming from a big 3 company (and arguably the best company in terms of music) this album feels very... cheap. I feel that originally, SM had a concept in mind for their first album, but as time went on, the direction/song selection constantly changed (hence the delays). While the incohesiveness has been a problem in the past few aespa releases, I think there is a much bigger concept/direction problem going on within aespa's/SM's art team. It's clear that after Lee Soo Man's exit, things for aespa were going to drastically change, but it feels as if we're in a period where their art team doesn't know what direction to take them in. Don't get me wrong, the Drama and Armageddon eras have a strong concept and were executed pretty well, but as a whole it feels like a "well... what now" when you analyze both bodies of work and the random track videos we've been getting since Spicy. Spicy did a good job at making it apparent that aespa were in the REAL WORLD. As for Drama and Armageddon...? Having a clear distinction between their KWANGYA and REAL WORLD sides would be very beneficial, but I don't see SM wanting to take that route since it kind of comes off as a carbon copy of Red Velvet's concept. Aespa's concept switch up is undeniably impacting their music. I think aespa is in a damned if they do/damned if they don't situation where regardless of the concept/direction they take moving forward, some fans are going to feel disappointed with their work. aespa themselves did an amazing job with what they were given this era/album. fingers crossed that when ae2 (in 2027) drops, it will join the SM girl group hall of fame for best KPOP albums (Pink Tape, The Red, Perfect Velvet, Savage (even tho it's a mini))

also i just gotta say that finding your channel was so refreshing cause finally there’s a space to express kpop opinions in a mature way without people getting mad about someone not blindly praising every single thing a group releases, i really love hearing your opinions and analysis!

i think what's frustrating about the lack of cohesiveness on aespa's discography is the fact that since lsm was gone they actually made a pretty job in reintroducing the group without losing the core appeal of their original concept, leaving room for experimentation, but that cleverness it's not translated on the bsides. so you're left with fun and exciting new side of aespa, they seem to have the ability to know that the "kwangya sound" is more than one single genre, so anyone would imagine that would be easy for them to build a cohesive narrative for an album, but they simply don't, deliberately so. so there's a lot of unttaped potential and i don't think fans like myself are selfish for feeling frustrated, especially considering that there is groups within the same company that have give some really cohesive and yet diverse pieces of work like exo with don't mess up my tempo, or red velvet with the red and the perfect velvet. + another thing that it's especially frustrating on that debate is how some fans don't seem to understand what exactly some of us mean when we say we want cohesiveness. of course there will be fans that want a through and through "kwangyacore" album, but i think most of us don't have a problem with diving into new sounds, but the issue is *what* type of music is being brought to the table and *what* it adds to the narrative and journey that the project is leading us to, and the most important question is: does it add something new to the artist's discography? because in my opinion, songs like melody and live my life have been done before by aespa, so what's the point of experimenting here?

yes bc none of their project has been cohesive since savage and it annoys me so much bc there are songs from each mini that can be easily be place on the other and vice versa, its like the producer accidentally mixed up the album bsides (take drama and my world for example)

Lots of people don't care about album cohesion, but I think people expect a lot from SM because they have a reputation for good music and full albums. But aespa is put a weird box where whenever they do something remotely different people accuse them of straying from their concept like with Spicy. Tbh I just think some of their b sides belonged on different albums. Like Hot Air Balloon (great song) should've been on the summer album MY World

Honestly it all reminds me of LOONA in BBC before and after Jaden's departure. Sure they kept some elements of the lore to satisfy fans but it was clear that pre debut, ++, XX was planned and made by different person than #, 12:00, & and Flip That. It wasn't drastically different like the cosmos, their signature colors etc were still there but it wasn't the same vibe. Their albums also started to get more diverse since Jaden's departure. I think in case of aespa it could be exactly like this.

My main issue with their albuns is that they lack any type of cohesiveness. Aside savage and my world their other pieces of work aren't exactly coherent, like armageddon for example, the first half is more hard hitting sounds with world ending themes, then we jump abruptly to fucking BAHAMA?????? Girl weren't we in the middle of an apocalypse or smtg like this? Musically the lore isn't there, they definitely should work like red velvet that had full albums for each side (the red, the perfect velvet, and then the reve festival), bc listening to their albuns as a whole has been jarring. I mean I like them individually, but the lack of cohesiveness is so annoying... if there's no cohesion in the sounds at least make it make sense through lyrics

No SM, I don't want a disney pop song on an album like Armageddon

The problem with Armageddon in particular was that it was supposed to be a lot of things: the first Aespa full album, the beginning of "season 2" for their lore (so implied to be storyline-focused), and a dark-ish concept (just the word choice for the title is hinting at an apocalypse level event). It was promised to be many things at once, and when fans are promised things, they go buckwild with theories. I don't think it was that out there that they expected it to be more coherent than a typical "Throw all the finished songs we have together" album. At the very least musically. I also don't think that fans are 'selfish' whenever we talk about anything we don't like. You can voice your dislike respectfully, but you *don't* have to just swallow whatever bullshit companies come up with whole just because 'you're a fan and you can't be anything but positive and supportive towards your faves!!" Fans are lining the executives' pockets, so yes, they do get a say in it.

I think it’s especially because SM has many iconic full albums (Pink Tape is the most critically acclaimed kpop album by a girl group, and maybe of the industry in general, and both of Red Velvet’s first two albums are similarly iconic) that people are caring about aespa’s cohesiveness

I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE BROUGHT THIS UP

Supernova, Armageddon, set the tone, and mine had an idea and sound that was upbeat and hip-hop/RnB that followed back to back but once we get to Licorice it's like we've lost the plot

I honestly feel like SM is in their confused era right now on what to do and what direction to follow with Aespa, following Lee Soo Man's departure. I personally enjoyed Armageddon as an album, however, I can admit that the last 5 songs felt like filler songs (and that's honestly too many fillers😭😭). I think my favorite B-sides have to be Licorice and Bahama. They're just composed so beautifully, but just give me summery vibes (more so Bahama) that aren't even suitable for the concept of this album. I think it would have been more fitting to be part of their own mini-album release, and maybe SM could've paired them with Better Things. Licorice also confuses me a lot, because in the mini mv they released, the girls transform into 90s power ranger-esque superspies that fight this licorice mint choco-chip furry cookie monster bubblegum ice cream thing which transports them to this room where they eat food that's flavoured like the monster...like, um- creative - and don't get me wrong, the aespa girlies can eat up any concept - but where was this going. What does this have to do with the Armageddon? It's giving me 90's style Korean Totally Spies, not the end of the world. Also Long Chat, and the whole them becoming astrophysicist and rocket scientists to launch that popcorn rocket. Again, cute concept, but unfitting and incohesive with the meaning and aesthetics of Armageddon. Honestly, I don't completely hate this change in Aespa's concept, and their potential permanent discarding of the "Kwangya" concept. I feel like Aespa's newer songs like Drama and Supernova easily resonate with more people (thus their recent international popularity w/ NASA & KUWTK), because it's pretty hard and confusing to get into the lore of the SMCU, and not everyone is willing to watch all the SM Culture Universe episodes to understand what's going on. Most people come into music for the songs, and not intricate sagas and plots that they can get through movies. I love songs and discography that have deeper, implicit meanings and longer stories that transcends the bounds of a 2min 45sec song, but even I can admit that the Kwangya lore is wayyy to deep to get into, unless you plan to stan. A discographic lore that I can get in and better understand is NMIXX's mixxtopia concept (which, btw, speaking of NMIXX, I wrote a long ass essay on your video analyising Fe3O4, and I brought in my Chem knowledge that you asked for, so I'd really appreciate if you'd read it, thx😭🥲) All in all, this comeback wasn't bad, just kinda incohesive. My favourite songs were Licorice, Bahama and Supernova, although Prologue and Set the Tone's growing on me. I can understand however, why SM would chose to abandon the concept and lore of Kwangya, but I really wish they'd settle and explore the new concepts and themes they bring forth (like I wish they'd explore the concept of Drama, Supernova and Armageddon more, but with the way things are going, I don't think they will), and I hope they never abandon the AI concept though, like how they kicked out and terminated the contracts of their ae-aespas, lol.

Cohesion matters to me because this album just sounds hastily thrown together with no real musical identity for aespa. It just makes the whole listening experience inconsistent, messy and confusing to me. I just got major whiplash listening to this album, and it's jarring to hear tracks that sound completely different from one another. It's as if SM don't know what to do with aespa and release tracks to see which fits for aespa instead of a coherent and well established musical identity. The first half of this album is very cohesive but it's confusing to introduce hiphop soundscapes now because they should've released the hiphop soundscapes earlier imo because I would've enjoyed it more and it fits their darker concept more than whatever Girls and Drama was which are dark action movie and aggressive songs. Their discography is just a whole mess now. It's so frustrating because aespa used to have one of the most cohesive bodies of work from Black Mamba to Savage and then since girls, it's as if SM don't know what to do with the group and they start to release ballads which doesn't make sense to me when they are known for their hyperpop tracks. It's like a 180 that I find it ridiculous.

I feel like SAVAGE is their most cohesive album.

that's why it didn't feel like aespa came back with their first (!) full album, it's because the whole album felt like some rejected sm songs

I think album cohesion is very important, i was thinking exactly how Savage and My World are still the only aespa albums i actually listen beginning to end and love all the songs. I honestly think My World is kinda like peak aespa because: - Welcome to My World is a masterpiece, it's emotional and epic, it sounds like a movie soundtrack - Spicy brought such a confident aespa, it looked like they've been a group for more than 5 years - Thirsty showed how much their vocals are top notch And conflicts with management and timing are so very impactful. A good example is how BTS' Map of the Soul era was supposed to be divided into 3 albums, Persona, Shadow and Ego, but ended up not happening due to timing (touring, enlistment, pandemic). What was supposed to be an era just as cohesive as Love Yourself era, became confusing when looking at Map of the Soul 7. An outsider or casual listener might never understand what was going on conceptually with that album, too many genres and themes. It's really a shame to have non-cohesive albums in a discography and i hope SM works it out with aespa. If only in kpop there was more time for groups to develop their artistic selves and not overworking them to drop an album twice a year to stay relevant, we'd be seeing better crafted bodies of work.

i feel like something that would have helped the album A LOT its if there was an interlude in between, like with NCT 127's regular - irregular interlude, it's something so simple but it really does add value to it (in my opinion) i do like that the girls are exploring new genres and at this point their cutesy pop-rock songs ARE part of their musical identity and i feel like this is something people are not really seeing because at this point we have almost the same amount of 'experimental-like' bsides as the cutesy ones (?) i feel like if they want to continue this route they should alternate between mini albums that are only filled with cute songs and mini albums filled with kwangya songs instead of having mini albums with both, or find a balance like with my world album

savage is still their best album. i’ll make you cry is on there, how could it not be? but trick or trick is also a brilliant song.

SM used to do cohesive albums SO well with Red Velvet - its funny how they just abandoned it with Aespa

i agree! Red Velvet has so much more freedom because the "red" and "velvet" side can be basically anything. or TWICE, they can basically do whatever they want, their concept is so flexible i originally thought they didnt have one! aespa however, has very restrictive lore. not to mention an entire album of the first five songs on armageddon would not be enjoyable at all. personally, i dont really like the last 5 real world songs (as much as i want and try to like them, they're simply not my tastes in any genre of music i listen to. they're great but not my cup of tea), and while i am all for aespa's experimentation, it needs to be blended better. i feel if there were 2 songs that took us out of kwangya and back into the real world in between licorice and bahamas, less people would be complaining since it's a "we're no longer in kwangya, time to switch the music up!" and its no incohesion, it's a switch up, it's giving NMIXX yk what i mean ahah? but SM didn't do that, making the hard cut a lot more jarring. but between the fact they need to build their own identity from nothing paired with the fact kwangya-style is such an overbearing and suffocating concept compared to even the pirate(?) concepts of ATEEZ and stray kids, the vampire concept of ENHYPEN, or even MIXXPOP from NMIXX, it's not acceptable to force aespa to focus solely on the kwangya. so i am all for a kwangya vs real world concept, but they need to BLEND IT!! but also we need to take into account most kpop mini albums or full albums don't have fully featured stories. like come on people, aespa is not (and has no plans to be) the weeknd, who is so devoted to his storyline that he basically cannot experiment with anything outside moody synth pop-rnb about all the naughty things he gets up to. but SM and aespa need to stick the landing better for balancing it. take notes from Red Velvet! for armageddon, i feel they either shouldve blended the switch better, or made BAHAMAS onward a mini album to release in mid July, because the 2024 Kpop Summer-Sound Song War is brewing, and a song literally titled after a vacation destination is definitely no slouch! tldr SM and aespa, blend the new with the tried and true! you can have this cake and eat it in kwangya too!

There is a difference between other SM girl groups and Aespa in that they are meant to be flexible and experimental. At the same time, Aspea has to be experimental within the whole storyline and narrative. They now have a story that the audience is intrigued by and is the backbone of the group's story and allure. And as much as I enjoy lore. It makes me wonder how restraining it is to be committed to lore. They are not characters in a show but real people with a storyline in their music. I wonder how far has the creative team thought out for this storyline if they have other plans or if they will get bored with this and completely discard this storyline. It can be very restraining seeing how you are now expected to have a sound specific to your storyline. I can imagine the creative burnout there is, seeing how beloved this storyline is among Aspea fans. I think another lore-based group who have found a balance would be Nmixx. Even if their songs have a lot of references to mixxtopia, I think they keep the lore building in their songs lyrically general enough to appeal to a wider audience and to be able to change genres quite effectively. Their songs are written in such a way that they are perfect for the lore. But yet stand out as something motivational or inspiring if you do not understand their lore. For groups such as Stray Kids I think even if their title tracks are stray (hehe) away from the noise music. I think it's easier to accept this change seeing it's a change in sound due to personal growth or personal desire seeing how the group makes their music. A change of sound would be a reflection of who they are as people, right, not based on the lore. I think the storylines are great, and I love Aespa’s. However, it can feel restricting to make music to appeal to one storyline, and that could create potential criticism for Aspea in the future. As for cohesion, I think they should make the albums into arcs or chapters if they want to make it Experimental VS non-experimental. Dividing them into chapters if they were to do it in one album would be a lot more effective because it creates a lot more organization. I'm so proud of the girls for taking and making choices for their album. It shows how much they care about their body of work as artists. Honestly, I'm not big on cohesion myself (if it's a bop, it's a bop kinda person) because I just love experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. I mean, I could completely argue that Midnights by Taylor Swift (I love the album) lacks cohesion. I acknowledged that it could, but I'd love the rollercoaster of emotions because of the album lineup. Likewise, I think the lack of cohesion in that album makes it feel real because we can relate to feeling sad to happy. It went from a reflective song to mourning about someone who has died to dreaming about someone loving someone forever for example Bigger Than The Whole Sky to Paris.

cohesion in albums, to me is very important(mini albums/eps i'll extend grace for)- if not in style than in lyrical content/concept. kpop is usually good at one of the two, but i think what has stopped me from fully enjoying the Armageddon album as more than a collection of songs is that it feels not cohesive in either style or concept. i like a lot of individual songs, but all together?... probably will have to let my thoughts marinate for longer though lol

i agree it seems sm is trying to give aespa a duality (a la red velvet) in having a kwangya vs real world concept and i think this could be very beneficial for them moving forward. however they’re clearly not putting in as much effort in their real world aspect as it falls flat time and time again and that’s where i think the issues with album cohesion lies. they’ve done a good job of establishing aespa’s kwangya side and sound (that signature iron taste they’re known for) from the beginning aespa started their career making pretty experimental tracks and that’s what drew a lot of people in like myself so the pivot to more conventional pop music for their b-sides feels a little out of left field. they seem to use real world as an all encompassing title for whatever songs they want to include on the albums since as of now it’s used to describe songs that are more bright, acoustic pop, pop rock, and ballad in genre. none of these genres seem to compliment their traditional kwangya songs which makes the usage of both concepts in one album possess that lack of cohesion.

I remember Winter saying the first time she heard herself on the radio she was in a taxi and the taxi driver changed radio stations because he said it was too upbeat and he liked more soothing songs, she said that stuck on her mind and she wanted to explore sounds that are not so heavy… and we got ICU

personally this is exactly why i love aespa,, they have such a varied discography that fits any of my moods

Talking about cohesivenesss, i have to give these 4 albums my absolute appraisals for their sonic cohesiveness 1. I've IVE - IVE 2. Bloom*iz - Iz*one 3. INVU - Taeyeon 4. Formula of Love - Twice

one of the things i always had in the back of my mind is that after i listened to lexie liu's "The Happy Star" album, i think it occurred to me that like a funky experimental sound CAN be done with more intense and more chill songs, even for a full album, none of the songs are excessively repetitive. but thats closer to what you mentioned in how the savage album is structured over my world for example.

My opinion that I think could've solved this: Get only bright songs on the album My world from Hyper line tour and mark this era as the very first era of Aespa outside of Kwagyna, without a villain and the members living regular lives. Get more Aespa-ish songs such as Salty and sweet into Drama album. Use this as an opportunity to say that Aespa is still dealing with Kwagyna and seemingly has a new villain. Even if people claimed Armageddon lacks cohesiveness, simply say it's the first example of the lore happening in both the real world and Kwagnya and that it will be furthermore explained with SMCU S2 (which is confirmed it's happening and I hope they don't mess that) As it's right now, I find it impossible for Aespa to have cohesive album from the start to an end. A lot of people like the typical Aespa, but a lot of people liked songs like Thirsty, Better things, Bahama-including members themselves.SME just needs to be smarter with their marketing and promoting.

honestly, I'd love if they tried different concepts but made them separate albums. like armageddon could've had just songs like the first five and they could've released the softer summery songs from armageddon and drama together with better things. I don't mind them having different concepts but I like to have a cohesive experience with an album. that's why I loved savage and it's one of my favorite kpop albums

everyone says savage is the most cohesive album but i would argue my world is. i wish drama had the same love and care bc it could have been SO GOOD but they really fumbled on the cohesion. hot air balloon should have been on my world too... as theres literally an air balloon on the cover lmfao

tbh im someone who likes to just put on albums that fit the vibe i'm looking for rather than listening to playlists most of the time, so to me it's extra annoying when albums aren't cohesive 😭 like this is ten vibes in one when am i gonna put this on?!

i miss kwangya. savage album was already cohesive, was expecting a similar sound with girls but instead we got.. illusion, girls was okay-ish

The thing is that 'Girls' album worked for me cause you can put it under a message like some hypothetical girls can be all of these songs so aespa also can be all of these songs. 'MY world' also worked cause it balances on the rope in between two worlds + neither 'salty & sweet' nor 'spicy' were that dark, dramatic and eerie. But i case of their last two releases.. You can't just give the albums names like 'drama' and, especially, 'armageddon' and put some vibey happy summer bubbly songs in there. Because the anticipation for such loud and, i would say, large titles is also on the next level (pun intended). And this anticipation cracks no matter how good the songs are. For me, that is not only aespa issue. There were many times i felt at least slightly disappointed because of how inconsistent an album could be. But in this case it also doubles with the fact that the name of the album is so loud and heavy and that the release is pretty big itself

I think this is the exact reason why I did not like the album in itself. The different sounds are nice but the songs chosen were so basic it feels like they just threw in random songs. If you are going for a different sound at least go for it don't just throw in some basic filler song. You can also go for a different sound and still have it add to the album

Begging everyone who thinks that you cannot remain cohesive whilst experimenting with genres to listen to tripleS. This group has one of the best bsides of 5th gen I’ve ever heard and very cohesive EPs yet get ignored in general.

I don’t mind if an album isn’t cohesive sonically or narratively, because at least you could argue that every song has a narrative cohesion or that there adding these songs to appease the general Kpop scene, now what I do mind is that the music quality is actually dropping, the Armageddon album on my first listens and current listened of the album is that the mixing is bad, the songs don’t feel like they came from a Big 3 company, at best the Armageddon sounds like scraps from Aespa’s contemporaries and scrapped demos that they haven’t fixed up. I understand the position that Aespa is in but SM has showed they can put out good albums since Lee Soomans departure and yet it feels like there just using it to continuously give Aespa worse and worse quality music. There’s more i would like to add but I’ll save it for the album review

For me some songs felt like Red velvet songs. Supernova and Armageddon hat a clear story line and I would wish that it also showed in the album. When I listened to Bahama my only thought was that this could be a red velvet song. Overall it was not what I would have wishes for them for a full album. Some of their songs were so generic that they could have been given to other groups. It does not feel as if these songs belong in one album.

Yeaaaaa the first portion of this album was good then the last portion was like blahhhhh. It sounded like two completely albums put together. 😭

yesssss its a problem especially for a full album😭 like they could have made bahama tt and those glittery songs into a summer mini

I don't know, how to objectively add to this conversation, because I personally don't really care about cohesion of the albums I'm consuming. Like if I get an album full of great songs such as Armageddon or my favourite example Ive's I've IVE, I don't really need the piece of art to be super cohesive. However I definitely see, where the argument is coming from, because cohesion does influence the presentation of aespa (or any other group) as an artist. Also are you kidding? The summer repackage with Bahama is SUCH a good idea, now I'm obsessed with it. I think we will see some kind of an explanation, once the new SM Culture Universe is out, but I don't think it'll be any time soon if I'm not mistaken.

yes, I definitely just read the title of the video and said FACTS this album feels trying to do everything, but not making everything work in the way that it’s enjoyable. Everything seems to have potential, but nothing has been executed to the way that a listener would be actually enjoy it. That is seemingly a biggest problem because all of these tracks were decent and well produced , but there was always something missing something. They tried to do so many things at one time and I feel like that is the reason why this album sounds like what it does sound. They were too ambitious. They forgot where they were going to take this album ✨i’m definitely a sucker for cohesive album so I’m just gonna say that ✨

I don't see it as a problem, at least not for me. I think it's great that they can showcase their musicality and diverse genres. Hearing similar songs on the album would be really boring. I also appreciate how each member shines in every song.

I think the way sm's creative team has packaged this album is DEFINITELY a problem. How i basically viewed this Armageddon album is that its showing aespa journey (with the same conclusion as you jimi whwre the first half better connects with the dark/futuristic scenes of the ai prescence of kwangya and the second half being more down to earth and girls journey/raw being in the real world). The promo we have witness so far from sm only repsonds to that kwangya side (that being the teasers where they were shown as literal divine futuristic beings and the underground but still chic street shots similar to the drama mv) so ofc we as an audience would've thought this album was gonna go hardcore kwangya style (even then i think the mv is actually even more genius of showing that balance between kwangya and real world concepts) i personally would've loved to see more promo that tie into what the real world aspect of this album is such as maybe a group chat teaser (still having tht digitalness we tend to associate with being futuristic but pretty trendy and real world to us). i also do think the choice of having an interlude would be a genius way of connecting the ideas of kwangya with the ideas of the real world together to get it to at least feel more cobesive in soundscape. I also wouldn't have minded having the album being 2 sides (as i saw in a chungha full album i think where the label divided that album into 4 sections), so that would mean having a side A and side B in there. I also think the overall album art/cover art also contributes to the lack of visual cohesion as again it only showcases the kwangya side

i've been one of the people asking for them to bring back the cohesion of savage but i will say that me speaking so highly of savage is due to the fact that it's a cohesive rarity in k-pop overall. cuz even groups like nct have presented us with title tracks like kick it & b-sides like love me now, love song & mad dog all in the same album. savage & stamp on it by got the beat have been some of the most sonically cohesive album sm has done imo, so i do kind of wish they had continued that with aespa. i've always said k-pop companies love to add unnecessary ballads to their albums / minis to prove their artists can sing & sm isn't an exception.

What confuses me the most is something that i've seen a lot of people in the comments saying--why is this a problem with aespa from SM of all places. Red Velvet does so many concepts and tries a variety of sounds, and they have some of THE most cohesive albums in kpop...it's annoying as a fan of both groups to know that the same company is behind the Chill Kill albums and ....Drama

I think most of aespa songs were already recorded and produced before they were released in their albums. They just made bad choices in when to release them because Hot Air Balloon fits so much more in MY WORLD rather thand Drama and the same happens with Im Unhappy but in reverse. I also found a video of a producer expressing how happy he was because one of the songs he produced long time ago was going to be released in Armageddon. So yeah, bad choices

They struggle with an issue i had with loona but for aespa i think its a bigger deal, both groups were marketed with concepts in mind (aespa’s kwangya and ae and loona’s running lore and the members debuting solo) the problem then comes when people find these things so interesting and they build so much hype just for their to never be any pay off, aespa’s futuristic style never feels truly authentic because they arent being truly experimental with their albums and following a concept and while loona’s albums were more cohesive they just couldnt keep up the steam of their debut-butterfly imo because it lacked direction. It’s also just a general kpop issue of groups being too manufactured at times for their own good where their own concept sort of gets lost on them because its just surface level aesthetics (i love aespa but u have to agree their experimental futuristic concept is sort of slapdash with a big budget mind u) but anyway im a lil high and yapping so idk someone fight me in the comments

That's why I love seulgis 28 reasons Album sm,an album where every song is in the same dark sultry, creepy soundscape. I listen tho this album without a skip! Most of the album releases throw me so of, bc of this complete vibe switches. Don't get me wrong I live aespas "cuter" songs but not with such a hard break in concept. I kind of feels like sm just tried for the first half and for the rest they slap all songs on there that they have left and no artist showed intressted in. And sure you can be versatile but within a certain vibe and style for the era yk?

honestly i feel like many of their albums could be more cohesive if the simply had better song orders. like a few songs could be switched in terms of order and the album would flow much better. this doesn’t really solve the kwanga concept problem tho.

No, I prefer their albums because it has diverse songs in one album. I don't want only a hip hop sound or ai sound for 30min+ straight. I like songs that sound different and I can skip them depending one my mood. One style of songs on a 10 track album, wether musically or lyrically gets boring as hell.

Lmaooo the intro with the "throw it back" line with taeyong, DOYOUNG/jaehyun and ten goes brrr 🤣🤣🤣🤣

yeah , I completely agree that the problem is how sm presents those cute/pop songs, i enjoyed the last five songs but they don't feel like they are part of armaggedon. You're right though that most of kpop albums lack of cohesion but for example, the war or exist by exo, are albums that even if all tracks doesn't have the same sound, you can feel every song belong to that album. Despite all of these i like albums that bring different genres and concepts but you have to no know how to do it well and not make it sound like you are listening to a different album each two songs.

i always love how in depth you go into each video, and i appreciate all the effort you put into these videos! i really do love your videos 🫶🫶

i wish we had more rnb bsides like Lucid Dream and Thirsty

Thank you for this!! I through I was the only one who was thinking this!

It is definietly a problem. I see people talking and analysing that the reason Full Albums are rare in K-Pop is because companies don't want to spend the extra money when fans and casual listeners don't even pay attention to the whole release. Most B-sides on a K-Pop album are ignored entirely there's only like 10 K-Pop groups whose albums are streamed similarly all the way through. It's most likely because of how terribly inconsistent the albums are. If a Pre-Release or Title Track is supposed to promote an album/project then why doesn't the album reflect that, after the title track you'll be lucky if you hear anything even remotely close in the b-sides. Recently I saw someone say that while Non-K-Pop artists' have concepts that are visually and sonically in sync & planned prior to the production of the album. K-Pop artists concepts are focused just on the visual aspects. For example, someone could be wearing school outfits but singing about something that has absolutely nothing to do with school or youth. So for songs that don't have music videos or visualizers the 'concept' of the album goes out the window and it's reflected sonically. BTS would be an example of a k-pop artist who is visually and sonically in sync. When they wore school uniforms they simultaneously sang about South Korea's education system and their feelings in their adolescent/youthful mindset. Their albums are also the most consistent and cohesive in K-Pop. Fans focus too much on the visual aspect of K-Pop and its songs that they ignore the b-sides that are released by even a K-Pop artst that they like unless it has choreography and/or goes viral. K-Pop companies know this which is why they keep the projects short and simple. It is less expensive and if the b-sides get ignored it was only 1-3 songs anyways

i havent watched the video yet, but honestly i find this album to be the most cohesive of aespa's releases, a part from their Savage EP. And it's easily my favourite of their releases.

this video is too real. I honestly don’t get the problem w sm ent because as both nctzen and my I don’t understand HOW nct dream had their last 2 albums in such a cohesive way (they’re well structured and really feel like albums), comparing to aespa’s last 2 “albums”. it’s a complete nonsense… girls should really get some better music production :(

i don’t think they (SM) should’ve made the full album if they couldn’t find songs after armageddon and supernova to fit the theme. this should’ve been a single release if i’m being honest. save good b-sides like bahama and melody for an album that they fit.

i think reve fest day 1 is cohesive. it captures that feeling of being in a festival from the first to the last track. same with day 2. the same can be said for rv’s 3 albums. everything is cohesive to the concept of the album. being red, then velvet, then a mix of both. better things was tacked on to drama badly. add better things to the back half of armageddon and that’s a good summer ep right there. i think it’s just sad cuz this is their first album and the songs are great just not together in a body of work. i don’t think cohesion needs to work with all kpop groups, but with groups that have a high concept like aespa…i guess i was just expecting different. not saying they shouldn’t try new concepts. they absolutely can but i just wish it was explored in more creative ways. again, like better things with the back half of armageddon would be such a great summer more bubblegum concept for aespa to explore. i don’t need them to be fighting black mamba or a new villain every comeback. i’ll gladly accept side quest like adventures from them.

savage is still their best album (ep,mini whatever) and i still stand by that!

thank you!! because i listened to the album yesterday and i was confused on why the songs were so inconsistent with the theme. aespa‘s strong points are definitely their title tracks but their bsides are mostly hits☹️

7:22 THEY TOTALLY SHOULDVE DONE THIS IK EVERYONE IS IN LOVE WITH THE TROPICAL VIBES OF BAHAMA AND WOULD LOVE AN MV

OMG! finally, someone's addressing this. i'm a huge fan of aespa and i'm so tired of the incohesiveness of their albums after the savage mini. i'm kind of getting used to it though. SAD.

I love it personally, ive been hungry for a full album so i genuinely dc and the songs r exactly my taste so im happy 😭😭 i can get if ur into album culture (im not really lol) itll seem messy but indont think it should take away from the songs themselves 💔 especially cuz sm has postponed this album i feel like they were panicking to find songs

I would absolutely listen to the album with songs like bahama, hot air balloon etc but not in the album where i want to listen to songs with the same idea as armageddon, girls or drama. When I first listened to supernova I thought oh maybe the album will be something like this but when I heard armageddon for the first time I couldn't listen to it for like a week because...(it sounds overdramatic lol) it's was nothing from what I expected+ supernova was better song for me and more summer like mood than the title track. I was really disappointed but eventually it grew on me

bahama should’ve been their english release instead of better things. and if a group like RV is able to have cohesive albums focusing strictly on one side (the red, perfect velvet) then sm should be able to do the same with aespa. its possible to create upbeat songs that fit their kwangya sound imo

Honestly I just assumed this album was trying to push the whole multiverse thing they’re currently at in their lore but I promise you I think sm as a whole is starting to have this album cohesion issue because for nct 127, fact check was a mess and even 2 baddies was pushing it a bit….

Can I say I am just so happy that asepa is releasing 3:30 min songs 😭😭. Also waiting for the album review. my favorite is mine and armageddon.

I think there's a multiverse thing going on in the season 2 of the lore. How i see it is the tracks are supposed to show these different universes. The problem is that it's not clear if you just listen to the album, you have to be deep in the lore, wich can cause confusion within the casual fans. They needed to make it more obvious if there is a multiverse. Maybe for future projects we will get the explanation.

Yet I think aespa is one of the few groups that really are demanded cohesiveness in their works...yall put a level of pressure and expectations on them that you dont put in other groups

Just from reading the title of the video...yes honey

tbh i think its the fact that their firat project was savage, that people are so focused on the cohesiveness of their albums. kpop albums are not generally cohesive and most kpop fans dont focus on it much, but savage is one of the best kpop minis of all time up there with fx pink tape and exo obsession imo, it will always be the thing that people compare their latest release tho, and while i think title track wise they have beaten savage with armageddon (certainly visually) as a full project aespa will spend their whole careers trying to top it. I think that with a better A&R team they can tho. also sm albums are usually the most cohesive so ig thats why people are disappointed, if u look at all the releases from them this year all have been cohesive musically, doyoungs youth is a great example if yall wanna checm that out (loll)

My World was the first album without LeeSooMan's involvement, and it wasn't just originally going to be the full album; Drama was supposed to be the *other half of that album*. Looking at the tracks we have, I can assume that Drama was probably going to be the title track of the full album and then Spicy maybe a b-side. I've always theorized that Spicy was originally a b-side because it really just SOUNDS like one, and the working theory that Drama was going to be the title of the big full album we never got makes it all make sense. A lot of the songs on MY World aside from Welcome To My World felt very....unfinished. Like even comparing songs that have the same sort of sound, like Thirsty or Salty and Sweet vs songs from Armageddon like Mine and Set the Tone, the songs from MY World sound...WEIRDLY almost empty? like the mixing doesn't even sound like how SM mixes, and it honestly makes me think that a lot of MY World's songs were pulled from the aespa/SMgg vault so they could release and album as soon as they could as to not delay aespa's comeback. Hell, Welcome to MY World was going to be naevis's debut, which had been planned since the tail end of 2022. they clearly had only a few months to pull everything together, and then Drama gave SM a little more time to write stuff to weave it into the lore more. To be honest i actually feel like some of the songs from My World and Drama could have been swapped to prevent such a weird disjoint on Drama; maybe put salty and sweet or thirsty on Drama and put hot air balloon and yolo on My World. Yeah you'd have way less of the kwangya sound on MY World, but the whole point of MY World *was* to be a departure from Kwangya. But I dunno. To be quite honest, though, as much as I don't like that the album got delayed, I don't think that they would have pulled together such a cool and intricate concept that rivals the likes of what LSM had been cooking up for YEARS if it had been released in 2023. Like aespa's website and the amount of detail and effort put into the Armageddon worldview is genuinely impressive and as much as I miss the aes (although APPARENTLY winter said they're not gone, so...) this like, AI alien takeover concept fucking rocks

I don’t think the problem is cohesion but rather in album length. It’s a lot easier to create cohesion in an album and experiment if the album has for example 15 songs. 10 song on a “full length” album, is difficult limit to be artistically creative and build cohesion as well. I will always call for longer projections

there are some people here going that as long as the songs are good, it should just go inside an album almost like its fine if they get a mixed bag. to a certain degree, i might agree but to another i rlly dont. imagine going to a course meal. each dish they have to bring out has to complement each other for the experience of the entire course meal to be good. maybe there's one dish that you disliked more than the other but that's fine, it highlights the other songs. if i were to use this analogy with aespas armageddon album, at first it felt like i was eating some really good, heavy savory meal and then suddenly it switches into dessert without any warning? it was still very good, but it took me out of the soundscape that the album built up from the first 4-5 songs and i had to immerse myself into a new type of soundscape. in a group like aespa where the concept is heavily emphasized from the music videos to costuming, it sucks when their first full album cant even be cohesive enough to not take me out of the soundscape. unreal. considering i love both the two different soundscapes in armageddon.

I noticed SM quality has gone waaay down since LSM left. I heard that some other producers left with him when his was forced out? If true, would explain the kind of drastic change in sound and style of their music. This goes for all groups not just aespa. I don't think I like any, any at all, of the music SM has put out since Lee Soo Man left. That guy knew what he was doing. Now all of SM's singles are just underwhelming. Sometimes catchy but theyre not enjoyable nor do they sound good. Red Velvet's full album last year was also crap. I listened to it in full multiple times but there was nothing that stood out about any of the songs, it was like the same song over and over with only tiny differentiation. I really miss the old SM.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks that the Drama EP was really incohesive. Like I love the songs on that album but for some reason it's so hard to sit through the whole album that it kinda takes me out of it