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The Korea Times

By Pyo Kyung-min
Three years after their first full-length record, K-pop girl group Le Sserafim are ready to tell a different story about fear.
The five-member group dropped Pureflow Pt.1, their second studio album, on May 22, built around a premise that inverts the group’s debut message. While the group’s first record declared strength through fearlessness, this one argues the opposite – that fear, faced directly, is what makes you stronger.
“When we first debuted, the message was that we were strong because we had no fear,” says Huh Yun-jin, the group’s primary songwriter. “Now it’s that we’re strong because we faced our fears.”
The new album’s 11 songs follow that premise, across genres ranging from Latin house to punk to funk.
Formed by Source Music, a Hybe subsidiary, Le Sserafim debuted in May 2022 with their EP Fearless. The group’s name is an anagram of “I’m Fearless”, and from the start, they built their identity around a unique kind of self-possession – confident and unbothered by convention.
That stance, paired with a sound that pulls from pop, Latin rhythm, rock and EDM, has made them one of K-pop’s fastest rising acts. Antifragile, the group’s second EP, reached No 14 on the Billboard 200 and turned them into million-sellers within months of debuting. Their first studio album, Unforgiven, peaked at No 6 on the same chart in 2023.
Embracing their fears
The question of why Pureflow Pt.1 has taken three years to make draws considered answers from the members.
“A full album carries a certain weight,” Huh says. “You can only put one out when you have enough accumulated experience and something real to say.”
The years have contained a catalogue of specific fears that the members have accumulated and learned to live with. Member Kazuha found her fear in the uncertainty that comes before creation.
“When we start preparing new music, there are moments when I doubt myself, when my own certainty wavers,” she says. “That’s when I feel fear. But I try not to run away from it. I think of it as part of the growth process and try to channel it into possibility.”

Hong Eun-chae, meanwhile, speaks of a fear that came with the group’s success.
“We received so much love, and that love brought with it a whole range of emotions, including fear,” she says. “I got to know myself better through all of it. I became more honest with myself.”
The most searching answer comes from Huh, on the subject of what it costs to let people in.
“Compared to when we debuted, I’d say we’re closer to sisters now,” she says. “But with that closeness came its own kind of fear – the fear that comes from truly letting someone in. What I learned is that being open, being transparent [and] saying the things that hurt doesn’t push people away. It actually brings you closer.
“Talking about our wounds can feel vulnerable. But when vulnerability meets vulnerability, it becomes solidarity,” she adds.
A sense of balance
Not every fear the group feels is weighty. Asked what she is frightened of most right now, Sakura says, “Summer mosquitoes. We were talking on the 23rd floor of our building, and someone spotted one on my neck. I get bitten so easily. I was horrified.”
The room laughs. It is a reminder that Le Sserafim, for all the seriousness of what they are trying to say, have not lost their sense of balance.
That balance, between sincerity and self-awareness, runs through the album’s title track. “Boompala” samples the globally familiar “Macarena” and wraps its message of confronting fear inside a song that is difficult not to groove with.


Huh was clear that the contrast was intentional.
“The message is that when you have nothing holding you back, fear disappears,” she says. “Change the way you look at fear, and it might just turn out to be an illusion. We wanted to put something that could feel dark on the surface inside a song that makes you want to dance.”
In the recording booth, the group was directed to chant rather than sing. Sakura re-recorded five times before the producers were satisfied, while Huh was told to imagine meditating in a forest. The music video, it turned out, was shot in one.
Kazuha says she finds “Boompala” comforting for a specific reason.
“When I’m going through something hard, I remind myself that it won’t last forever,” she says. “The song says, zoom out, look at the bigger picture and it’s just a part of the journey. Accepting your emotions and still moving forward – that’s what’s admirable.”
When Hong is asked what she most wants to hear people say now that the album is out, she answers without hesitation.
“I want people to go, ‘This is so Le Sserafim,’” she says. “When we debuted, we were still finding our colour. Now I feel like our identity, our sound, our way of doing things, is coming into focus. This is the album where I hope people really see that.”
Read the full story at The Korea Times


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(From left) Le Sserafim members Huh Yun-jin, Kazuha, Sakura and Hong Eun-chae in Seoul. The group’s leader, Kim Chae-won, announced last week that she would sit out promotional activities due to a neck injury. The K-pop girl group’s new album, Pureflow Pt.1, is the culmination of facing their fears. Photo: courtesy of Source Music

Le Sserafim became one of K-pop’s fastest-rising acts after debuting in 2022. Photo: courtesy of Source Music

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When Le Sserafim debuted, their message was about being fearless. Now, the K-pop girl group want to say that facing fear makes you strong


When Le Sserafim debuted, their message was about being fearless. Now, the K-pop girl group want to say that facing fear makes you strong.


K-pop idols

Hybe

Korea Times

With new album Pureflow Pt.1, Le Sserafim are facing their fears and are stronger for it

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}When Le Sserafim debuted, their message was about being fearless. Now, the K-pop girl group want to say that facing fear makes you strong

When Le Sserafim debuted, their message was about being fearless. Now, the K-pop girl group want to say that facing fear makes you strong