aespa in Japanese for the first time — the mini album 'KISS N TELL'

In three lines

• aespa released their first Japanese mini album 'KISS N TELL' on July 24.
• All six songs, including the title track 'Kiss N Tell', are Japanese-language originals.
• A few of them are used as theme songs for Japanese anime and drama.

Not translated — written in Japanese from the start

'KISS N TELL' is aespa's first Japanese mini album. The part worth noting: these aren't existing Korean songs turned into Japanese. All six were written in Japanese from the beginning.

Overseas releases usually start with a local-language version of a song that already worked. It's safe and it's quick. This time that step got skipped. Writing a whole album from scratch for one language market carries its own weight, and you can feel it.

Six songs, six ways in

Song	Note
Kiss N Tell	Title track
Orbit Pop	Album track
Fangirl	Album track
Attitude	Opening theme for the anime 'Kill Blue'
Done With Rules	Album track
In Halo	Theme song for a TV Tokyo / Netflix series

Lined up side by side, it's clear the album doesn't run in a single direction. The title track sits on the summer-pop side, while the songs written as themes wear different expressions, shaped by the stories on screen.

Songs that run past the album

What's fun about this record is that some of the songs play outside of it. 'Attitude' is the opening theme for the Japanese anime 'Kill Blue', and 'In Halo' is a theme song for a TV Tokyo and Netflix series.

Which means the songs travel through anime and drama, not only streaming charts. You don't have to go looking for the album — one day a song finds you on screen first. Songs you meet that way arrive in reverse order: you don't know the artist and then hear the track, you fall for the track and go find out who it is. That's largely how K-pop widens abroad now. Screen before stage, more and more often.

Why Japan, why now

Japan is one of the largest music markets in Asia. It's also a place with an unusually strong attachment to songs made locally, in the local language. Putting out six songs written in Japanese from the start, rather than translated versions, reads less like a visit and more like moving in.

Discovery note

If you like Japanese anime, start with 'Attitude'. If you want summer pop, start with the title track 'Kiss N Tell'. Same album, several doors. Whichever one you come through, aespa's solid, hard-edged sound is waiting.

Just give it a listen, trust me.