Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
LE SSERAFIM have rocketed to the top of the girl group tier, securing both physical and digital successes with only two singles under their belt. Despite that, I had yet to really come around on their sound that seemed less melodically centered and more about expressing coolness through droning repetition, and that doesn’t really change a lot with “Unforgiven“.
That said, for those who enjoyed their previous two singles, I find it hard to believe you wouldn’t love this as well. It’s a bit more all over the place than their past efforts and I’m not sure the chorus is as instantly memorable, but it’s also better melodically (especially the pre-chorus) and the lyrics are perfect for the attitude they’re trying to convey. “Unforgiven” is also very ITZY-ish, and though I will say that while I do find LE SSERAFIM have better elements to their songs than them, it’s interesting that people believe the quality gap is huge or hate one group’s music and not the other. Made me reflect on how much of the discourse around music is just powered by stan culture’s perceptions of a group than anything else.
*Enjoyed the sample of Ennio Morricone‘s “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly“, if for no other reason than I made me go listen to his stuff again.
LE SSERAFIM are still a lot more interesting to me as performance group than anything else, as the totality of the experience with their releases far outpaces the actual standalone music. Their visual concept, their music videos, and their choreo all shine on “Unforgiven”, and they just generally have unique charisma to all the members that helps them standout. So while this trilogy isn’t sonically up my alley, it’s not hard to understand their popularity at least.
