Less than a year after releasing their 5th mini album, the acclaimed K-Pop group aespa drops another one, titled Rich Man – The 6th Mini Album, which contains 6 new songs to delight the MYs.
Mini albums, so iconic and prevalent in today’s K-Pop, are an interesting and modern way to bring music to the public.
They tend to be releases roughly equivalent to a traditional EP in the Western world, but generally a bit longer, and with greater importance, considered more substantial launches. They come with more elaborate packaging and plenty of promotional material. Obviously, they’re shorter than a traditional studio album, and they’re released with a relatively short time period between them.
I think that although I’ve always liked full studio albums, I’ve also come to appreciate the mini album culture. It gives me the chance to dive into enough new music from an artist without investing as much time and energy as I would in a full album. It also lets me have this experience more often than what usually happens between longer releases.
On the other hand, I think mini albums can also limit an artist from presenting their work with sufficient depth. Personally, they often leave me a bit unsatisfied. But well, maybe they’re just another manifestation of today’s culture of short attention spans. “The TikTok effect.”
The collection opens with Rich Man, the song that gives the mini album its name. This time, amid the techno-pop sound of a typical aespa track, an electric rock guitar appears as the main instrument. The lyrics express the theme of not needing someone to provide everything, mentioning already being “a rich man” and having the ability to stand on one’s own.
It could be considered a feminist song, but I don’t think so. Nowhere do I notice expressions of girl power or anything like that. Just a fun lyric with a positive message.
Karina, aespa’s leader, explains: “What makes the song very special is its message. It’s not about material wealth, but about self-confidence and believing in yourself. So the opening line says look for someone who can do everything for you – but that’s you. So, I’m already a rich man because I trust and love myself.”
Drift turns up the volume on the techno hip-hop. Guided by the melody of someone whistling casually, it’s a song packed with details, entertaining and dynamic, which I can perfectly imagine the aespa girls performing with a choreography in true K-Pop style.
With Bubble, the group unleashes its fun sound. At times, it feels like an avant-garde collage of percussive sounds, with the girls playfully rapping about the topic. And that’s how aespa shows it keeps its experimental roots alive.
And well, the obligatory R&B ballad can’t be missing. This one’s Count On Me. Nothing especially memorable. More like a moment designed to contrast with the other tracks. If it weren’t for those slightly dissonant background sounds that unmistakably identify the group, it could slip into a collection of more commercial R&B songs.
Angel #48 is the most traditionally pop song in the collection. It’s a track I quite liked, though it almost feels like aespa is covering a more traditional and moderate K-Pop group. Definitely a light but pleasant moment. I wouldn’t mind if aespa included more songs along these lines.
To close the collection, To The Girls appears, an electronic pop-rock track with a moderate tempo that the group dedicates to the girls, “their sisters around the world.” And well, finally that girl power message shows up, with lines like “it’s bad girl o’clock” and the chorus:
"This one goes out to the girls,
all messed up and ready to burn.
Tasting that sugar so sweet,
we're harder than steel,
freaking unreal."
I think it’s easy to conclude that Rich Man contains a collection of quite interesting songs, especially because there’s a good stylistic variety among them. Above all, the mini album presents aespa’s unmistakable sound that, as always, isn’t afraid to flirt with the experimental. The group remains, in my opinion, one of the most unique acts in the K-Pop world.
