Aespa 2nd Mini Album Girls - Album Review (Retail Exclusive Edition)

Today's music review is actually a newer album and one that is still in print! Most reviews I post are for older albums from older groups however today I have an album to share from aespa! This mini was released in a few different versions and the one I have is the Retail Exclusive Edition. It is basically the Target Exclusive one but it was called the Retail Exclusive and was sold through JB Hi-Fi.

Girls is the 2nd Mini Album from Korean girl group aespa and it was released on July 8th 2022. The mini was released in eight versions: Kwangya, Real World, Girls, Target Exclusive, Rocket Puncher (Karina ver.), Armamenter (Winter ver.), Xenoglossy (Giselle ver.) and E.d Hacker (Ningning ver.). The mini album was available for pre-order and at JB Hi-Fi stores however only a few versions were available there. You could only get the digipack ones that come in these cardboard sleeves and it was disappointing as I wanted to get the Real World version as it was my favourite concept. I ended up ordering the Retail Exclusive one which had a cool cover of the girls and it was reasonably priced around $30. The Retail Exclusive edition I got came with the following contents:

• CD - 6 track mini
• Digipack casing
• English lyric booklet
• Lyric booklet
• Poster (Random 1 out of 4 members)
• Poster (Random 1 out of 2)
• Kwangya Version Photocard (Random 1 out of 4)
• Digipack Photocard (Random 1 out of 4)

This edition comes with two posters and two photocards which are listed as US-exclusive photocards. For random posters, I got the group pose in their kwangya character concepts and NingNing. So happy to get her and I would've loved to have gotten her photocards too as she is my bias. However I ended p with Karina and Winter who are gorgeous as well.

For a mini album, you get quite a few songs with a total of 6 tracks and 9 if you get the digital version. Honestly this mini hasn't been high on my current music listening list and I need to sit down to listen to it more. I just haven't gotten into it as much as some of the groups other songs. There was some articles I read online that fans weren't really loving this comeback so maybe it is a different sound to their normal stuff. If you purchase the digital versions of Girls, you get previous released songs Black Mamba, Forever and Dreams Come True as extra tracks. Illusion was released as a pre-release at the start of June, followed by Life's Too Short as the group's first English single later on in the month.

1. Girls
2. 도깨비불 Illusion
3. Lingo
4. Life's Too Short
5. 쉬어가도 돼 ICU
6. Life's Too Short [English Ver.]

I would totally purchase more aespa albums if JB Hi-Fi continues to stock them and the group has announced an album to be released. So hopefully we will get that one over here and with some cute versions as well. Will be picking it up if the price is reasonable as I ordered some TWICE CD's recently and the prices were insane. Still debating on whether it is a good financial decision to buy them or is it an actual sign that I shouldn't at that price. SM albums are usually cheaper than other artists so maybe aespa will be luckier with their next Australian release.