2024 was undeniably the year of Aespa. They had massive success on the charts, swept many end-of-year awards ceremonies, and best of all, kept topping themselves creatively with the one-two-three punch of “Supernova,” “Armageddon,” and “Whiplash.” Each track in this trio contained Aespa’s core characteristics—futuristic flourishes, esoteric songwriting, velvety vocals, and girl crush energy—while offering something musically unique and visually eye-catching.
That’s a hard act to follow, but the K-pop train chugs on. Aespa are back with “Dirty Work,” which, alas, is a letdown.
“Dirty Work” opens with an (impressive) shot of Karina atop a pyramid covered in white-clad backup dancers. The image could be slotted directly into “Armageddon,” an MV “Dirty Work” bears significant resemblance to with its industrial aesthetics and tendency towards grime. However, where “Armageddon” consistently provided jaw-dropping sci-fi imagery, “Dirty Work” is surprisingly pedestrian. To be sure, the excellent camerawork that has become an Aespa signature since “Drama” is still present, but what it is capturing is nothing more than some average stare-down solo member shots and group dance sequences.
There are a handful of nice scenes, most of them involving intriguing angles that showcase some excellent backup dancer formations (like MV’s opening). However, the MV’s loose construction site concept is neither especially interesting to begin with nor executed particularly well. A plethora of mud is not enough to make an MV risk-taking or attention-grabbing.
“Dirty Work” is also missing some of the dark-edged wit that elevated “Supernova” or “Whiplash.” Whereas previous Aespa tracks have had layers to provide mid-MV novelty (for example, the downright iconic tripping sequence in “Whiplash”), “Dirty Work” is exactly what is says on the packaging: a standard girl crush track with polished but uninventive visuals.
That lack of nuance is present in the song itself as well. Aespa’s lyrics have always had a certain element of nonsense to them, but previously it usually felt purposeful and even cheeky. Here, platitudes about girl power meet random references (Mafia? Mutants? What are you doing here?!?) and lazy writing with mediocre results. One could be forgiven for wondering if AI had a hand in putting together these unappealing, unrelated lines:
World domination, I don’t gotta say it
Like a groundbreaking
Mutant
A curse, that’s me, from a majority POV
Set ’em on fire, it’s self-evident
Musically, the track’s central hook is catchy, but the song counts too heavily on it, repeating over and over again. The song’s melodic first bridge is also uncharacteristically middling. The only real sonic punch in “Dirty Work” comes in its second rhythmic “drop it low low low low low low” bridge…but even that reads as a lesser version of the similar staccato bridge in “Supernova.”
All of this might seem like an unfairly relentless train of negativity for what is, ultimately, an okay song. However, it is that precise averageness which makes “Dirty Work” so unfortunate. Aespa have proven themselves capable of much more. Additionally, as a group that can struggle on the performance end (some of the only negative attention they got in 2024 was thanks to mixed reviews for their tour and end-of-year award performances), their success is particularly reliant on the generally high quality of their music and MVs. “Dirty Work” isn’t a total disaster, but it is a real disappointment.
English (US) · 