LE SSERAFIM “Different” Review

After releases like “Unforgiven” and “Antifragile,” I was nearly ready to call LE SSERAFIM the leading girl group of fourth gen. But after releases like “Crazy” and “Different,” I am so falling out of love with them…

Concept/Message: 1

“i’M sO diFfErEnT~”

This is literally what this song’s message is. This is literally a vomit-inducing message.

Look. It is not that I have a problem with being “different” or “unconventional.” But I so hate the way LE SSERAFIM presents this message. LE SSERAFIM tries to prove that they’re “different” in this by just doing “different”–or, in their case, deliberately cringey and weird things–in their music video. They grow a plant in a pink basketball. They stick that plant into a blender and turn it into a blue juice. They have a pet spider. Yunjin sticks a strand of her hair out her car window.

Therefore, LE SSERAFIM equates being different with looking or acting different. They have, therefore, the most stereotypical, shallow, and conventional idea of what being “different” means. Being “different” does not mean doing a bunch of weird and contrived things. No one does these weird ass things out of a genuinely different personality or worldview. In fact, the girls’ actions in the M/V are so laughably inauthentic that it just makes LE SSERAFIM look like attention seekers–the weirder our actions, the more attention we’ll receive, they must’ve thought. But being “different” should not be equated with seeking attention. There’s a reason why people who keep trying to assert that they’re “so different” are collectively found annoying and attention-seeking–and LE SSERAFIM is not helping themselves by subscribing to that mindset.

Honestly, I felt like the message presented by “CRAZY” was just as insincere and annoying as “Different.” LE SSERAFIM is seriously sending themselves downhill by going down this route…

Video: 2

It’s not a bad video. After all, it came from HYBE, who is sitting on way too much money to be making mid music videos. But it just feeds into that horribly harmful and stupid message that I discussed earlier. All those weird, supposedly “different” things that LE SSERAFIM does to prove that they’re “different”–they just feel so inauthentic and contrived. I can’t stand it.

Lyrics: 2

“i aM diFfErEnT, diFfErEnT, diFfErEnT”

Ugh. Barf. The other English lyrics aren’t helping either. “I go bad but I’m good enough”–what in the vague diction does this mean?? “I got the sauce”–does anyone actually say that???

Music: 3

Honestly, I liked this song. It has a bouncy, catchy beat that goes right up LE SSERAFIM’s dance alley. I also liked the trumpet (?) sounds in the instrumental–it’s unique and “different” (haha). Lowkey, it sounds like a suona to me, but would a K-pop group use an instrument like that?

But guys. WHY IS THIS SONG SO SHORT. IT IS LITERALLY MISSING AN ENTIRE BRIDGE AND LAST CHORUS. WHERE IS THE REST OF MY SONG????

See, this is what I’m talking about with LE SSERAFIM seeming so contrived. They make really short music just for streaming minutes. They subscribe to the “I’m so different” message because they think that’ll catch audiences’ attention, not because they are genuinely ideologically different. They are not real artists.

I would’ve given this song a 4 if it wasn’t for the 2:22 timestamp. I swear, I need K-pop execs to stop being so greedy and start making real music.