[Album Review] FEARLESS (1st Mini Album) – LE SSERAFIM

LE SSERAFIM’s debut mini-album is next up on the reviewing block. LE SSERAFIM, the newest female group that hails from HYBE Entertainment and Source Music, debuted back in May with the title track and mini-album of the same name, FEARLESS. It features a total of 5 songs, including the already mentioned title track. FEARLESS originally featured 6 members. But as of last month, Kim Ga Ram exited the group due to her bullying controversary that emerged whilst the group was promoting their debut. She was quickly sidelined and the group temporarily reformed into a 5 member group before becoming a permanent formation in July.

While LE SSERAFIM’s debut isn’t necessary the best start to the group’s career for obvious reasons, FEARLESS (the title track) was quite successful. It grabbed the attention of a lot of people, including myself. Based on what I saw, it also become a hit and hopefully people will remember the group for their debut track from this era and not because of something else. As for the mini-album, it was a fair one. I am not head over heels over the entire mini-album, but there was at least some good songs on there. Do you agree with me? Let me know in the comments below (after reading my thoughts below, of course!).

FEARLESS Album Cover

1. The World Is My Oyster – Starting off their debut mini-album and their overall debut is the intro track, The World Is My Oyster. The instrumental for this track takes on psychedelic trance, which is right up my alley. There is an epic vibe simmering away in such songs, which makes me like the style. I also enjoy the suspenseful nature behind it. The World Is My Oyster features each of the members speaking in their own languages, introducing themselves as fearless, fitting for a group whose name is an anagram of I’M FEARLESS and begins their career with the title track titled Fearless. Not much else to the track, but a potentially epic one. (8/10)

2. FEARLESS (Title Track)Click here to read the full review for FEARLESS. (9/10)

3. Blue Flame – The secondary promotion track for LE SSERAFIM’s debut is Blue Flame. It is groovy number, going into down the disco route. The vocal work extremely nice and showcases potential behind the group’s vocals. However, Blue Flame was pretty generic and plain. While I really enjoy the retro sound that has been dominating KPOP for a while now, I am a bit disappointed about the lack of excitement or energy behind the song. If there was some sort of zing or vibrancy to Blue Flame, maybe I would have liked the song more. But it is just too consistent and doesn’t offer anything unique to the group. (6.5/10)

4. The Great Mermaid – To me, the difference between Blue Flame and The Great Mermaid is night and day. The Great Mermaid had so much oomph to its instrumentation thanks to the bass that featured in the song. The energy is exciting and memorable. The instrumental was so textured due to the combination of synths and bass. The vocals, while autotuned, felt fitting for The Great Mermaid, and well rounded. The ‘Na Na Na’ that follows the chorus was so catchy and the retelling of The Little Mermaid story in the lyrics was quite unique. (9/10)

5. Sour Grapes – The final song on this mini-album is Sour Grapes, a much softer track compared to any of the above tracks. It taps into the R&B realm and again features neat vocals. I liked the wavy melodies that the members deliver. It gives Sour Grapes a comforting and dreamy vibe. I did want a bit more to the song. It feels pretty elementary without going further and I am not entirely sure if I enjoy that. As an ender, however, Sour Grapes eases us away from the commotion that the title track caused, along with the upbeat backings of the other tracks on this album. (7/10)

Overall Album Rating – 7.9/10

FEARLESS Teaser Image

3 thoughts on “[Album Review] FEARLESS (1st Mini Album) – LE SSERAFIM

  1. Sour Grapes ended up aging really well for me. I was underwhelmed originally, but when I came back to it a few days after when relistening to their debut album, I liked it a lot. It is among my most played songs this year.

    I personally think that this is probably one of the strongest albums this year in K-pop, but I guess Blue-Flame was too one-note for you. I understand where you are coming from actually, but I appreciate its simplicity.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yeah, this album is not my pick for the strongest of the year. However, their debut track probably earns that title. There are still probably a few more debuts heading our way and this year has been quite tough with such intense competition. But Fearless managed to stick out of the pack continually for me.

      Like

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