After a stratospheric 2024 crafting genre-pushing hits like "Supernova" and "Armageddon,"
Aespa
make their first full-length comeback of 2025 with their sixth mini-album,
Rich Man
. Taking a notably more eclectic tone,
discards the space-age theatrics of debut album
Armageddon
and the vogue concept of fifth mini-album
Whiplash
in favor of a series of smaller experiments. Girlhood forms the heart and soul of both the project's opener and closer: "Rich Man" takes a baseball bat to patriarchal standards with its opening, "My mom said to me 'find someone who can give you everything'/and I said 'mom, I already have everything'/I am a rich man," while closer "To the Girls" unifies listeners behind a rallying "this one goes out to the girls, my sisters all over the world." The four-track set that squeezes in between these songs sees the
girls dip into a series of idiosyncratic concepts. "Bubble" proves the most eccentric of the bunch, framing its chorus around the Bop It series of audio toys -- "Twist it, turn it, flick it, pull it, bop it/Let me see you bubble bop it" -- while the cutesy "Angel #48" conjures the girls' very own guardian angel behind a bubbling, ear candy-crisp synth line. The most impactful cut arrives in the street race-themed "Drift," which oozes with a dark, sultry charisma. Taking notes from last year's superb "Kill It," the album's standout second track drops down into a whistle-based head-swinger of a chorus before revving back into action for a thrilling climax. ~ David Crone