Album Review: Easy by LE SSERAFIM
The most cohesive, mature, and compelling LE SSERAFIM release yet
Listen along!
LE SSERAFIM debuted in May 2022 with debut song Fearless. They were the first group to debut under Source Music (part of the HYBE family) after the mysterious disbandment of GFriend a year prior, and the first girl group to debut under HYBE, joining the juggernaut boy group roster of BTS, Seventeen, TXT, and Enhypen. Their debut was overshadowed by bullying allegations against member Kim Garam, who eventually was put on hiatus and left the group in July 2022. And then just two days after Garam left the group, another girl group debuted under the HYBE umbrella - NewJeans.
Perhaps there was a bit of the strength of being forged through fire that has helped LE SSERAFIM power through these controversies and carve out a place for themselves in the very saturated Kpop girl group environment. Each member has cultivated a unique appeal - beautiful leader Chaewon, ballet dancer Kazuha, entertainment industry veteran Sakura, opera trained Yunjin, and adorable baby of the group Eunchae. They also seem to really love each other, which is always fun to watch.
Previous album releases (2022 EPs Fearless and Antifragile, and one full length studio album, April 2023’s Unforgiven) have been so-so. Solid lead singles followed up with one or two successful B sides have hidden experimental but patchy quality songs. In the back half of 2023, however, LE SSERAFIM found great success, first with Unforgiven B-side Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife (supported by an aggressive marketing campaign featuring the release of seemingly interminable versions), and then with surprise success in a single released for the game Overwatch 2 - Perfect Night.
So a lot was riding on their next EP, February 19’s Easy. With this album, LE SSERAFIM needed to distinguish themselves from the other dominating Kpop girl groups: NewJeans - the fresh faced and cool 90s vibe girls next door, IVE - the rich popular girls with a chic and elegant vibe, and (G)I-DLE - the self-producing and writing, girl crush girls.
LE SSERAFIM (an anagram of I’m Fearless) bring a BlackPink-esque badass “fearless” vibe to the girl crush concept alongside heavy use 90s style: whether that is 90s style R&B like Impurities, 90s electro like Eve/Psyche or classic girl group vocal arrangements like Sour Grapes.
An advantage they have on their side relative to labelmates NewJeans is that the members of LE SSERAFIM are a bit older (except Eunchae!). This allows them to be a bit more comfortable exploring more mature themes and presenting a more mature concept.
Easy delivers the most cohesive, mature, and compelling Le SSERAFIM release yet, but it leans into generic pop and away from the more exciting experimental tracks of previous releases. Perhaps this makes sense, now that LE SSERAFIM have found a commercial recipe that works, could they really be expected to give that up? In this album, LE SSERAFIM are exploring another side of their “fearless” persona - overcoming anxiety and still making it look “easy.” These themes have been suggested in both previous LE SSERAFIM songs and in Yunjin’s solo work “I Doll,” but this time we’re getting an album’s worth of the philosophy.
Lead single Easy is the first big Kpop banger of the year. The foundation of the song is a trap R&B beat, overlaid with a recorder-like repeating melody and R&B vocal delivery. The styling for the song’s promotion is quit provocative and has drawn some criticism from Korean fans (a la the criticism received by Enhypen for Bite Me last year). Personally, I think it’s the best pop song I’ve heard in months.
Track one on the album is “Good Bones,” which LE SSERAFIM philosophize on whether or not life is fair in three languages over a driving rock beat. This is the weirdest, coolest track on the album. “Swan Song” loses the trap and keeps the R&B while highlighting another of LE SSERAFIM’s recurring themes, ballet. One of their concepts for this album was Black Swan/White Swan, and, according to Chaewon, this song is about “how it looks like swans just float elegantly on the lake, but underneath, they're working so hard to keep floating.”
Next up is afropop track Smart, already gearing up to be their next big single. This single draws heavily on the amapiano style of fast-rising South African star Tyla, whose single Water became super popular at the end of 2023. And we close with, of course, a fan service song, called “We Got So Much” which asks the group’s fans to keep sticking with them. It’s really nice.
All in all, there is a lot to like on this album. Each track is unique but it also makes sense as a whole. And watching LE SSERAFIM perform these songs has been a treat. They might be getting some criticism over weak live vocals, but they are putting on a show each time they step on stage. I see a lot of similarities with Twice in that way (and in many other ways!), and therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a long career ahead of these girls.
4/5 stars - recommended!