LE SSERAFIM – ‘Easy’ review: fearless girl group shine new light on their strength

19 February, 2024

le sserafim easy review

Out of ugliness often comes beauty. That idea has fuelled many stories and beliefs across cultures, from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Ugly Duckling to the Buddhist story of the lotus flower. Each day, that plant rises out of the mud to bloom, cutting through the sludge to brighten its habitat before submerging again at night. Much like the peaks and troughs in our lives, it’s in a constant battle between survival and shining.

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On their third mini-album ‘Easy’, LE SSERAFIM take up a position similar to the lotus flower. Since their debut in 2022, the girl group have stood strong, embodying the mettle in their group name – an anagram of “I’m Fearless”. They’ve made it seem almost impossible that they’d ever feel unsure of themselves or the world, presenting like five K-pop wonder women whose rise has been effortless. In reality, they’re just as human as the rest of us.

That’s the truth that ‘Easy’ aims to highlight, but not in the way you might expect. This is no collection of sombre songs bemoaning the uncertainties of life and the music industry – they’re still LE SSERAFIM, and even when they’re breaking down their tough facade, they’re going to do so from a position of strength. They use the release to acknowledge how easy their career has looked from the outside while spotlighting what they’ve gone through behind the scenes to make that so. Not that they seem to care what you think about any of this, with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude that continues to feed into their usual bold energy.

“Jealousy, doubt, mistrust, now friends of me, yuh / To the world I’m halfway seraphim,” they sing on the title track, referencing the angelic beings they share a homophonic name with. If those cherubs are associated with purity and light, the five-piece delve into their shadows to paint a more well-rounded portrait of them.

‘Swan Song’ takes a similar approach, this time comparing the women to graceful black swans “dancing to survive” and diving through the water “even if I’m breathless”. “So many days, so many nights, so many tears / Sometimes I’m anxious,” they admit at one point. “Love is never enough; I crave for more / I fear this greed will kill me.”

Through it all, LE SSERAFIM never lose their determination. You can feel that in ‘Good Bones’, the opening song that soundtracked this mini-album’s trailer and was inspired by a poem of the same name by Maggie Smith. It acts as a statement of intent, each member exchanging narrations in Korean, English and Japanese in which they vow to keep going, no matter what the world say. Each time they unite for a shouted refrain of “Easy, crazy, hot – I can make it”, their resolve and tenacity grow stronger, breathlessly escalating in their voices and the whirring riff that bolsters them.

‘Smarter’ might find them choosing to be “the more powerful ‘villain’”, but ‘Easy’ isn’t all steely grit. It ends with ‘We Got So Much’, a new tribute to their fans that was premiered during the group’s ‘Flame Rises’ tour last summer. After four songs of unravelling their under-the-surface emotions, it’s a reminder that all that really matters is the love that LE SSERAFIM both receive and reciprocate. “We got so much love / We won’t take it for granted; we are special,” they sing softly. “We bloom within each other.”

‘Easy’ presents a new evolution in LE SSERAFIM’s oeuvre, not just thematically but musically too. As a group, they’ve never shied away from trying new, globe-spanning sounds and they continue that trend here, expanding their sonic palette. The title track bounces through a trap beat that makes commanding your attention seem like child’s play, while ‘Smarter’ boasts an infectious, sunkissed groove. ‘Swan Song’ and ‘We Got So Much’ – which both feature songwriting credits for the members – float like gossamer, the former twinkles and elegantly drifts while the latter is gently propelled by crisp synths.

These choices of styles only serve to make the attitude in ‘Easy’ feel more nonchalant and unbothered. If the whole record continued the hard rock of ‘Good Bones’, it would likely amplify a sense of angst. Instead, though, its more feathery, light sounds reinforces exactly what LE SSERAFIM say they’re going to do – rise out of the mud and make this all look incredibly, flawlessly easy.