The 15 Best aespa Songs, Ranked

Complex ranked the 15 best songs by K-pop group aespa, highlighting tracks like "Drama," "Armageddon," "Next Level," and "Supernova" for their structural switch-ups and cyberpunk sound. The ranking coincides with the release of the group's second full album *LEMONADE* and a Los Angeles pop-up event with Complex running May 29-31.

Key Takeaways - This is a ranking of the 15 best songs by K-pop group aespa. The girl group has went from lore-heavy AI-avatar rookies to genre-bending leaders of a futuristic, real-meets-digital sound. - Tracks like “Drama,” “Armageddon,” “Next Level,” and “Supernova” are highlighted for their abrupt structural switch-ups, vocal flexes, and the way they sonically capture aespa’s defiant, cyberpunk worldview. - The group just released their second full album, LEMONADE . They will also be doing a LA popup event with Complex in celebration of the album. When SM Entertainment unveiled aespa https://www.complex.com/tag/aespa in November 2020, they introduced something pop music hadn't quite seen before: an idol group that existed in two worlds at once. Each member had her own AI-powered digital avatar. Karina, Winter, Giselle, and Ningning weren’t just performing as themselves—they were creating a new world and inviting fans to join them there. Virtual performers aren’t a brand-new idea in pop music—think Gorillaz, Hatsune Miku, or K/DA. But aespa’s https://www.complex.com/shop/artists/aespa?utm source=google&utm medium=cpc&utm campaign=2025 Search Artists Sales&gad source=1&gad campaignid=22139251807&gbraid=0AAAAA-DaqW5sYWzf fgVkXkVi y3xnH4N&gclid=CjwKCAjw8uTQBhAdEiwAVvtJyriFFh1bZyG6eAzROHiMHIwliKU2uUIbEnGdHhCCbM7OD5U7mPZ4LxoC5dcQAvD BwE avatars appeared alongside them in music videos, making aespa the https://www.complex.com/music/a/brendan-frederick/aespa-kpop-group-explained first major idol group to truly straddle the line between reality and artificial intelligence. In the beginning, aespa’s concept was wrapped in layers of mysterious lore—terms like -æ selves, SYNK, and Kwangya painted a world built on futuristic technology that didn’t yet exist. Underneath the storytelling, aespa was really inviting you into a place where your real and digital selves could come together, with an AI guide named nævis helping you meet your avatar—and maybe even the group—somewhere in between. It all sounded like something straight out of science fiction—until real life started catching up. SM was already talking about the metaverse and AI avatars in 2020. A year later, Facebook rebranded as Meta. Two years after that, OpenAI brought ChatGPT and AI into everyone’s daily lives. Even though aespa has left most of their lore behind, they still exist in that space between the real and the digital. That in-between space is now expressed sonically rather than lyrically. Atmospheric harmonies and vocal-fried rap verses are grounded by synth basslines—aespa’s music is built to transport you to another dimension. But at its core, it’s a rebellion. Just as you settle in, the song switches up before you can name what you’re hearing. Those creative risks have paid off. aespa took home Group of the Year at Billboard’s 2025 Women in Music https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/aespa-group-of-the-year-billboard-women-in-music-2025-1235936510/ . They’re also the first K-pop girl https://www.complex.com/shop/collections/kpop group to have six projects break into the top 50 of the Billboard 200, and they’ve scored seven consecutive million-selling releases. But what makes aespa worth ranking isn’t the lore or the sales. It’s that the future they kept describing finally sounds like something: defiant, euphoric, impossible to pin down. The best of these songs is where you can hear it. With aespa dropping their second full-length album, LEMONADE https://www.complex.com/music/a/tracewilliamcowen/aespa-lemonade-album-ty-dolla-sign , today—and a popup with Complex https://www.complex.com/events/aespa-la-pop-up in LA running from Friday, May 29 through Sunday, May 31 from 11 am–7 pm—there's no better time to rank their catalogue. Here are the 15 best aespa songs. "Spicy" 2023 Album: MY WORLD On “Spicy,” marching band beats and cheerleader chants plant you squarely in aespa's hyper-stylized imagination of American high school life. The song is anchored by a bassline that sounds like a Party City groan tube. "Illusion" 2022 Album: Girls 2022 The Korean title, 도깨비불 Dokkaebibul , means will-o'-the-wisp—the ghostly light from folklore that tempts travelers off their path. The song works the same way: it’s a musical lure, weaving aespa’s mythology with hauntingly seductive harmonies. Winter and Ningning pair up during the second pre-chorus, then Winter, Karina, and Ningning layer their voices on the bridge– twisting together three voices into something that’s beautiful. "SHAKIN'" 2026 Album: LEMONADE “SHAKIN’” leaves the spaces between the vocal lines wide open, then fills them with hollow percussion knocking around over a sporadic, gritty synth bass. Bleeps added in for texture give the track a naughty feel despite the lack of actual curse words. The real tension sits in the lyrics, which manage to be threatening and demure at the same time. After promising to |keep it pretty, keep it candid|, they claim to have “swallowed your heart whole” |네 마음을 삼킨|. "Savage" 2021 Album: Savage 2021 “Savage” is peak Kwangya, with the members linking up with their AI guide nævis and prepare to fight the villainous Black Mamba, who wishes to sever the connection between the digital and physical worlds. It’s also one of their most committed takes on the abrupt, structure-breaking bridge that runs through their music. But it’s not all concept. The pre-chorus is a real vocal showcase, especially Karina’s raspy turn before the second chorus, and the final chorus lifts off on a key change with a run of Ningning ad-libs. This is aespa at their weirdest and most self-mythologizing. "Dreams Come True" 2021 Single "Dreams Come True" is a remake of S.E.S.'s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR FQP4ypuM&list=RDJR FQP4ypuM&start radio=1 1998 single of the same name. aespa's song was co-produced by BoA, bringing together three generations of SM royalty in one song: the label's first girl group, its biggest soloist, and aespa themselves. They keep the vintage synth-flute and the breakneck, theatrical rap as a tribute to their predecessors, then build something new on top of it. In "Dreams Come True," aespa took a song from 20 years ago and made it sound like it came from 20 years in the future. "Hold On Tight" 2023 Album: Tetris Soundtrack from the Apple Original Film On paper, a Cold War biopic about a 1980s Soviet puzzle game and aespa should not work. "Hold On Tight" is built around "Korobeiniki," the 1860s Russian folk melody better known as the Tetris theme. But it's no gimmick—that old melody becomes the chorus itself. aespa fully transports this 19th-century tune beyond the modern day to their techno-future. aespa feat. G-Dragon, "WDA Whole Different Animal " 2026 Album: LEMONADE 2026 In “Whole Different Animal,” aespa is ready to pounce. In their most authentic hip-hop track yet, aespa confronts you with arpeggiated synths and a dare. Karina's repeated taunts of "do somethin'" aren't a warning—they're an invitation to punch first, before she knocks you out. Conceptually, "WDA" is a true evolution of the aespa worldview: a new breed you can't classify. G-Dragon's feature shouldn't work on paper given his history with a rival label, but he reads less like a guest than a legend from another era, pulled into the digital world of aespa. "Dirty Work" 2025 Album: Dirty Work 2025 "Dirty Work" is aespa's good-girl-gone-bad moment—a polished group deciding to get a little filthy. This is spare and slinky, channeling the low-slung minimalism of Britney's "I'm a Slave 4 U." The visuals lean into Christina Aguilera's Stripped era, embracing an unpolished edge. "LEMONADE" 2026 Album: LEMONADE "LEMONADE" is aespa's whole method, spelled out. Where their other songs do the trick sonically—turning sourness into delight—this one names it. It's a full-throttle blast on a big synth bass, and it earns its place as a capstone: the hook loops back through "Drama," the whole catalog folding in on itself. aespa feat. nævis, "Welcome To MY World" 2023 Album: MY WORLD Ironically, it’s in Kwangya, the virtual world aespa’s AI counterparts inhabit, where the group delivers their warmest track. aespa’s unguarded vocals paired with electric guitar and bass create a sense of intimacy, furthered by lyrics that read “you and I are one” | 너와 내가 하나 |. Then, a swell of orchestral strings expands the scope of the song; we’re not just meeting aespa, but the entire world they’ve built. Fittingly, the featured voice belongs to nævis , aespa’s virtual guide from their own mythology, finally given something to sing. "Welcome To MY World" is the most literal expression of who aespa are: the synthetic made to feel human. "Supernova" 2024 Album: Armageddon 2024 aespa expands their techno-worldview to the universe in “Supernova”. Despite being a pre-release, the track became a smash hit; it ended 2024 as the No. 1 song of the year in Korea, topping Circle's year end chart. The driver of its success is found in their signature switch-up, teased in preceding pre-chorus before exploding in the refrain. And the secret sauce is the sample: that switch-up is powered by Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 electro landmark " Planet Rock ." "Whiplash" 2024 Album: Whiplash Most pop confidence is about how you feel, but "Whiplash" is about how you're seen. The title is the double-take a killer outfit pulls out of people, and the production flashes like a camera in your face. aespa are now one of K-pop's most influential groups in luxury fashion, with Karina and Ningning making their Met Gala debut this year as Prada and Gucci ambassadors respectively. "Whiplash" declares them a force in both music and high fashion—Ningning says it in the song itself: "Cats gon' copy one idea, two, then the whole look" |따라 하지 넌 또 하나부터 열까지|. "Next Level" 2021 Single "Next Level" should have been a misfire. It's a remake of a song on the Fast & Furious soundtrack, rebuilt with one of SM’s most abrupt switch-ups in their production history. The synth bass scratches like rubber on asphalt before the beat drops us into what seems like a totally different song. Lyrically, the track is dense with lore as it depicts aespa’s journey to Kwangya after Black Mamba severed the connection between our world and the metaverse in their debut single. Sticky lines like, “That's my nævis, it's my nævis, You lead, we follow” might not make sense, but in the summer of 2021, you were chanting it anyway. "Armageddon" 2024 Album: Armageddon "Armageddon" drops us directly into the future that aespa brought on: real and digital fused together, and very much apocalyptic. It’s a fitting perspective switch as the cyberpunk future aespa presented in early releases finally caught up to our current technopessimist reality. Lyrics like “Now I finish you, better run” | 이젠 널 끝내, better run | put aespa in the predator’s seat, suggesting they’ve become the villain in the world they sold. Unlike most aespa choruses on this list, this one sings instead of raps. The verses spill into runs, Ningning delivers a vocally complex, surprising bridge just before the outro tips into pure ecstasy. "Drama" 2023 Album: Drama "Drama" is a song about choosing to be the problem, the center of the story, and refusing to apologize for it. The real flex isn't that they're in the drama, it's that they're writing it: | 세상을 두드려 움직여 | “Tap my finger and watch the world move.” On the bridge, each of the four takes her own line, making the "we" in “Together, we write this story” | 함께 써 내려가는 story | literal as their voices blend harmonically. The outro doesn't resolve so much as detonate, as Winter sings |You know, I'm savage|, a callback to “Savage” which is on this list.