If you only knew the ever-bright YENA: a different voice facing love and goodbye

The first track of her first single album ‘Love War’, released on January 16, 2023. A short intro of roughly 1 minute 31 seconds, it works less as one long song to hear on its own than as the starting point leading into ‘Wash Away’ and the title track that follow. The album deals with the process of love turning into something like a war and with an unpolished inner self, and Colde took part in production. If you only remembered the radiant image from her debut, listen for what feels different in this opening. The record runs about eight and a half minutes from start to finish, so you can meet a single flow even in a short time.

‘Wash Away’ is the second track of ‘Love War’, at roughly 3 minutes 52 seconds. Between the intro and the title track featuring BE’O, it’s the place to hear YENA sing on her own, and it’s the longest of the three tracks. Take in the title in the context of an album that captures the course of love in the honest language of the inner self. You can listen while recalling what moment in your own life made you want to wash something away. Compared with the exchange of viewpoints between the two figures in the next song, the feeling left when you focus on a single voice is worth noticing too. Recommended for anyone who wants to know another side of the singer through music beyond her signature songs.

The last song and title track of her first single album, with YENA taking part in writing the lyrics and music. BE’O features, and the two sing the different positions of a couple on the brink of a breakup. The official introduction points to the direct lyrics and groovy melody as its features. Over roughly 3 minutes 8 seconds, listen for where the two voices draw close and where they diverge. It’s a good song for getting to know YENA’s work that doesn’t always view love as a thrilling beginning. You might also enjoy it together with the two preceding tracks while recalling a moment when caring for someone and feeling worn out by the relationship arrived at the same time.

The first song of her fourth mini album ‘Blooming Wings’, released on July 29, 2025. In an alternative pop style, it deals with the feeling of love in films and dramas becoming a rest from a busy daily life. Over roughly 2 minutes 26 seconds, recall a romantic scene you’ve dreamed of at least once yourself. Unlike the previous album, which set out from the end of love, this record opens by imagining a love not yet known. Listening to the two releases side by side, you can enjoy how the same singer’s love stories have different starting points.

The second track and title song of ‘Blooming Wings’. Its Korean title means ‘I hate being called nice most of all’, and its overseas title is ‘Being a Good Girl Hurts’. Within a bright impression of unfolding strings and instruments, it holds the wistfulness that comes after love has ended. Listen while recalling a moment when wanting to be a good person came back to you as words of goodbye. Over roughly 2 minutes 47 seconds, it’s worth following how the emotion builds. More varied impressions arise when you don’t judge the heart in the lyrics to be light just because the surface mood is radiant. If the title caught your ear first, check how the same words feel after you’ve heard the music.

YENA took part in the lyrics of the third song, ‘Annyeong (Hello, Goodbye)’. It holds the calm, lonely feeling left where love has ended within a greeting that sounds the same but carries different meanings. At roughly 3 minutes 43 seconds, it’s the longest of the five tracks on the fourth mini album. Recall a moment when the first greeting you exchanged with someone and the last words you said to them were the same. Listened to while the emotion of the title track still lingers, it can become a time of looking at goodbye in a different tone. Rather than searching with a translated title alone, remembering both the Korean and English names makes it easier to find again on music services. Recommended for a day when you want to quietly look back on your heart.

The fourth track, featuring Miryo of Brown Eyed Girls. Its title, ‘Neoman Animyeon Dwae’, means roughly ‘anyone but you’; it adds the sensibility of 2000s K-pop to a house rhythm, and it’s a song that hands a goodbye to someone who has kept up a string of sweet lies. Over 2 minutes 28 seconds, listen to the impression YENA and Miryo create together. Where the preceding ‘Annyeong’ looked back at the place someone left, this song meets a far clearer resolve to end the relationship. You can also enjoy it with the thought that the feelings of a breakup don’t always have to be expressed as sadness alone. It’s a collaboration worth noting for anyone who wants to hear how the direction of emotion turns within the same album.

‘364’, which closes the fourth mini album, is an alternative rock song with a touch of pop punk. It playfully ties the wish to stay with someone you love for a long time to a number. At roughly 2 minutes 30 seconds, it’s worth hearing how the feeling that remains changes after passing through the preceding songs about goodbye. You can also recall the introduction describing the album as carrying a narrative of first love and growth. If you set out from the fantasy of ‘Drama Queen’ and listened all the way through, pick once more the song that came closest to you.