Song Review:: aespa: Lemonade- LEMONADE

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  • Release date: 2026 May 29

  • Album runtime: 33 minutes

 And continuing with the SM obsession with lemons. It's a proud tradition at this point (with even Onew having a bunch of them in one of his music videos), and I know I'm doing things out of order, but this one got a win (congrats!) so I want to make sure I have it done before I post the Weekly Music Show Wins that I'm behind on. I just think it's really funny that we got two SM lemon songs this season. First this one and then Lemon Tang by Hearts2Hearts. And, delightfully, the runtime is acceptable.

This sounds very Whiplash. It's not my favorite sound for an instrumental, because it's not complex enough for my brain to really enjoy it, but this one is very science fiction in a Tron sort of way, and that kind of branding for a group is enough to smooth over some of the bits I don't like as well. That bridge instrumental is vitally important though because it provides such a deliciously different sound and texture to the rest of what is predominately a collection of beats layered over each other. 

I also don't like the mumbled rapping. I get that that's the cool thing to be doing, but it feels lazy (which means that it probably takes a lot of skill to do well, in the same way that actors are good actors if they can excellently play a character who is a "bad actor") and texturally, it's a bit mushy. I don't like mushy as a texture in anything. However. There are enough breaks from that sound of significant enough length, even just strengthening up the rapping a little sometimes on the repetitive parts, that it doesn't set me into a bubbling pot of frustrated disappointment. And that's Spanish I'm hearing. I'm almost positive. Fascinating.

The one set reminds me of the one they had for Dirty Work? Rich Man? I can sense the lore is loring even though I don't follow their lore. It's still there. 



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