Review

Song Review: LE SSERAFIM – Unforgiven (ft. Nile Rodgers)

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LE SSERAFIM - UnforgivenWe’re in the middle of a girl group gauntlet, with K-pop’s most popular acts making a string of comebacks this spring. Today, it’s LE SSERAFIM’s turn. Their one-two punch of Fearless and Antifragile helped define 2022, but new single Unforgiven reverts to tropes better left on the cutting room floor.

My first thought upon hearing Unforgiven was: “where the heck is Nile Rodgers?” I was thrilled to see his name on the credits. K-pop doesn’t often collaborate with this kind of legendary, genre-defining talent. But wherever he may have played on the song, I don’t hear his influence at all. Instead, Unforgiven acts as a redux of ITZY’s Not Shy – a grating, Western-themed chant-a-thon that’s the latest in a long line of tired “I’m such a badass” posturing. Producers need to find a new schtick.

The thing is, I could totally fall for this concept if the song had been rooted in melody. But like so many of its ilk, Unforgiven is mostly stylish sing-talk strung together by TikTok-ready catchphrases. And, when the song does embrace melody, it has the cadence of a nursery rhyme.

Unforgiven’s strongest moment is its second-verse rap, which briefly delivers a flow that compliments the production. Unfortunately, it’s sandwiched between repetitive choruses that seem to run out of ideas as soon as they start. This is probably an exaggeration, but it feels like 35% of the song consists of increasingly aggravating repetitions of the word “Unforgiven.” This is at least 30% too much, as far as I’m concerned!

Hooks 6
 Production 7
 Longevity 8
 Bias 7
 RATING 7

Grade: C-

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82 thoughts on “Song Review: LE SSERAFIM – Unforgiven (ft. Nile Rodgers)”

  2. The chorus is catchy and punky, but they used it so much that it easily wears out. The post-chorus “unforgiven boys/girls” is my least favorite part of the song but it may grew on me.

    Kazuha and Yunjin owned this song. Yunjin is a superstar.

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  3. Truly grateful for this review. I heard this and thought, OK, this is a lost Blackpink song with a heavy dose of Itzy. Boring, disappointing and irritating.

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    • Itzy and Blackpink were the same two groups that came to mind hearing this! I was really craving more melody in this song.

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    • Itzy and Blackpink were the same two groups that came to mind hearing this! I was really craving more melody in this song. The scene of them standing on the car also reminds me of a very similar scene in Dalla Dalla – it roughly occurs at the same time in the song too lol.

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  4. For a song with this pedigree of both producer and sample, it is rather uninspired. Whatever money they paid to Nile Rodgers and to the estate of Ennio Morricone, there is not much to show for it.

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    • To quote the song, “But alright”. as if that makes everything all better.

      I mean, I mean this guy wrote or produced or performed or was sampled for half the soundtrack of my childhood. He must have phoned it in on this one.

      I just looked it up. The song has listed 17 songwriters. (17!) Technically 18, since Ennio Morricone is not credited though he should be for the only thing that counts as a hook, albeit well buried.

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      • When Daft Punk got a hold of Nile Rodgers in 2013, they knew exactly how to use him, and produced the #1 smash Get Lucky. And then last year, Beyoncé got him in the studio and they made the acclaimed Cuff It. Two Grammy awards between them. The plastic, funky minimalist sound Nile Rodgers pioneered shows up in all kinds of ways, from dancepunkers like LCD Soundsystem and !!! to the 1975 and the new disco wave lead by the likes of Dua Lipa. I just don’t see how Hybe and Le Sserafim managed to frack it up so badly.

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      • 17 songwriters, oh dear. The Ennio Morricone sample made me laugh because the non-cowboy parts of the video were just so perfume advert.

        As my other half pointed out, the bit between Yunjin firing an arrow and Kazuha’s wing breaking off took weirdly long, to the point where it was like ‘correlation or causation’?

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    • I just don’t get it. Why would you hire Nile Rodgers and make this kind of song? Why didn’t they make a funk/disco song for the legendary funk/disco producer? It just doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you get him and then bury him underneath 17 other songwriters? I’m so disappointed because I think he could fit so well into the kpop world if they just gave him a real song to play on.

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  6. UGH. The lyrics and MV are the same old girl crush shit. Instead of telling us what an unapologetic norm-buster you are, why don’t you show us??? Gah! I’m so frustrated. The kpop industry could really use some norm-busting! Like idk maybe some… body diversity, for example. But instead of giving it to us the industry gives us songs in which idols tell us how subversive they are without actually being subversive. 😑

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  7. I blame the girls crush trend KPop has been riding on since 2016/7. Itzy, BP, and Let Sserafim sits on the same table of groups with songs that doesn’t necessarily sound like songs. But I guess it kinda worked for all three groups cause their charisma hard carried their entire musical career.

    I am also very salty of how underutilized Nile Rodgers is. If you have a man that calibre as a feature, then make sure to feature him well!

    Once my annoyance subsides I might end up liking this song more but for now I just can’t lol

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  8. I like bits and pieces of this song because it’s not really a song but bits and pieces masquerading as one. Disappointed with this cb but maybe they’ll rock the next one.

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    • Sadly when I saw 14 writers on this song I thought it was unlikely to have a killer cohesive idea. It seems the label’s emphasis is on everything but the song: the beat, the sampling, the name drops, the video, the visuals etc and the vocals act as a kind of side dish to fill in the empty spots, rather than a centre dish. I don’t know, maybe I’m being a bit negative. I have to say I far prefer the material that NewJeans and IVE are releasing. Actually I have nothing against girl crush. I love most of Blackpink’s singles. But they did it once, they did it well, and Teddy is a crazy good producer… the rest is the bad copy of the bad copy of the bad copy 😦
      I’m surprised Morricone and Neil Rodgers agreed to this.

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      • I agree, getting Nile Rogers and the sample is all a marketing tactic in my eyes. It doesn’t work if that marketing doesn’t translate well to the music. They’re doing everything to make Unforgiven sound cool but the execution? Could’ve been far better. The music should always be the focal point, not the names, the MV, the outfits, or whatever. Put your money and efforts into the music please.

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        • I totally agree. I just think honestly they have other priorities, like the exact production and the title/concept and the feature, the choreo etc… and they probably paid 14 writers to come up with something that fit all of these “priorities” and so it was overcooked and soulless – but HYBE won’t care because they will make money from the album sales as the girls are so good and popular. It reminds me of what JYP did with NMIXX first title tracks in fact. That’s why I prefer NewJeans and IVE this year… it’s really real songs with great melodies to me… I don’t know, there’s a spontaneity and a spark about it. The better the song, the least you need to hype it up, overdress it, overproduce it, overanalyse it etc but it seems lots of labels absolutely don’t think this way 🤷🏻‍♀️

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  9. yeah i was disappointed with this song. i thought le sserafim of all groups wouldnt go generic girl crush style, but i was wrong…

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  10. It ran out of ideas to quickly and never really built upon what it initially created. Hence it never reached the heights of Anti fragile, which seems to be what they were trying to go for given the fast and driving tempo of the song.

    Additionally because the production is so weird and uninspired, what happens is that the energy distribution within the different parts of the song feel unbalanced. From the good prechorus moving onto the chorus,the first part of the chorus feels painfully bare and it doesn’t help that there is barely any variation in the way it goes throughout. You can say it is delayed gratification for the moment when the girls join their hands together in that melody which I can see myself humming to, but then again it feels a bit underwhelming considering the tone the opening set. The energy distribution in Antifragile feels like a natural progression that felt just right. This just felt undercooked.

    If anything, watching the girls perform it on their comeback show immediately made my impression of the song better because they are stellar performers and will sell whatever material they have (the song suits them well). I just wish it was more innovative.

    I can see it go two ways, age really badly, or age really well like Antifragile did for me. I don’t see an in between. But because I love the performance skills of the girls so much I have more faith that I will grow to like and understand the song more over time rather than hate it even though objectively I’m not very optimistic at the moment.

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  11. I’m so disappointed in this song. I was fully prepared to go full on fan girl and call Nile Rodgers my Le SSerafim bias. This song is just ok though. Its the least interesting one on the EP to me and you have no idea how much that disappoints me. The rest of the ep is really good. I don’t think there’s really a bad song and a lot of it will go on my playlist. I just wanted to love this song more than I do. I’m sure it’ll grow on me. He needs to write for a group with more funk and disco influences like Twice.

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      • Cause they probably paid him just to perform some riff (he didn’t write anything) with the goal of name dropping someone building some kind of hype trying to lure the western market into it. It seems to me like these features BTS started doing on their albums (Sia, etc) which basically never worked. It’s just lame. And I’m a BTS fan… but I have ears and a brain too. That’s what I meant when I said that HYBE’s priority seems everything but the song. It’s a shame for the girl honestly.

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  12. Seems like now Le Sserafim has become an established group in Kpop, their signature sound has also been cemented. And that is to repeat their Title Track name in the verses 1000x times.

    Not a fan of the hook at all, though I do like the post chorus? I feel this is meant to be another song more meant for the visual/choreo side. Might grow on me in a couple months, but definitely not on first listen like their other songs
    5.5/10

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    • That kinda makes sense, as they seem to be going for a latino/hispanic vibe in their music at many points (heavy reggeaton influence, and Fire in my Belly sounds so much like a Spanish summer song, the Olé doesn’t even bother me as a Spanish person because the music really captures the essence of Spanish summer pop), and that type of chorus is really common here.

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  13. Elevated ITZY was my first thought about this song. Even though Antifragile was initially disorienting, it really grew on me (kind of like IVE’s Kitsch has) and now it’s my favorite title track from them so far. At least it was different and interesting rather than rehashed girl crush. I feel like the song reflects the MV–clearly a lot of money went into it, but it’s ultimately wasted potential.

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  15. at least not shy had incredible moments such as the pre-chorus and the breakneck raps… this was just… well, there… the hooks were okay, grating at times. the verses were meh… the girls make it work but nothing stood out at all (other than the excessive repetition of the song’s title). its a watered down antifragile. this song is the last thing i’d want a lesserafim title track to be. BORING.

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  17. Another case when I heightened my expectations up too much, this time because of Nile Rodgers being featured. And now I’ve got a question: WHERE THE FUCKING HELL IS HIM??? I can’t hear anything in the song which would at least hint at his influence a little bit. Instead, we’ve got a boring piece of girl crush, which is clearly the last thing I wanted to hear from Le Sserafim. IN THIS CASE, IT’S NOT A COMEBACK. IT’S A DAMN HATE CRIME!🤦‍♂️

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  18. Ok the song was not exactly bad and I liked what I got – but I’m really surprised that it just had like 2 parts repeated over and over again. Maybe a couple more different parts – a bridge or a different final chorus could have done something interesting. The girls performed it really well on stage and Eunchae’s voice was the one that attracted me the most this time and I’m sure it will get more catchy because of their fun performances.

    I feel Le Sserafim usually have action-packed songs like Fearless and Antifragile but this one doesn’t have that same attitude/intensity to it. As my sibling said it feels like a “cream puff” in comparison… idk what it means lol 💀 but I think I get it – the song’s alright but doesn’t leave us with that pow impression like their earlier songs did. I feel it’s the girls and their charisma that makes it work more than the song itself.

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  19. I’m disappointed…the buildup of that first minute (which was leaked on Knowing Bros a day or two before the comeback and made me super excited) did not pay off with the rest of the song, something about the energy and flow just did not work the way Antifragile felt cohesive. Will listen to the album though, I liked the sound of most of the b-sides from the highlight medley.

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  20. I am kinda disappointed with this one. I don’t think it is bad, just underwhelming and by far the weakest of their three title tracks so far. Now, THE NEW BSIDES? I loved them all! They feel so much richer.
    I was really surprised by the winds in No-Return; it definitely elevates it from just a follow-up to No Celestial. The overall production of the bsides feels so opulent and substantial! Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s wife was MINDBLOWING, scratched all the right parts of my brain. Fire in the Belly NEEDS to be the follow-up single; it’s what Unforgiven couldn’t be (by the way, there’s a part where they chant OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ in a way that’s too familiar to a classic cheering chant-along we have here in Uruguay and probably other Hispanic countries. Did anyone else feel the beginning resembles “Despechada” from Rosalía?
    Fearnot and flash forward were also really good; I think an additional 30 seconds would’ve elevated the ballad, though.
    And please, HYBE, can we have bridges in the title tracks again? It could’ve really pushed Unforgiven further.

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  21. My thoughts exactly. C or a D for me. The thing is, I was so excited by the title when it was revealed several weeks ago. It conjures images of Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and the brilliant accompanying scores by Ennio Morricone, as well as Metallica’s Morricone-influenced The Unforgiven and black album. Le Sserafim’s teaser #1 sampled Morricone’s Good, Bad, & Ugly theme. I also thought of Quentin Tarantino’s films, and one of the best & biggest hits of 2023 so far, SZA’s Kill Bill, which I was so sure Le Sserafim & Nile Rodgers were answering back. (Hint: They’re not.) Le Sserafim *could* have pulled all this off. And don’t get me started on how K-pop could’ve really used a contemporary iteration of the sound pioneered by Nile (Chic, Sister Sledge). Just wasted opportunities on all fronts. It’s up to NewJeans now, everything else by Hybe this year has been a real let down for me.

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  23. A low 8 for me.
    When Nick reviewed IVE’s “I Am”, he wrote “IVE are the most exciting girl group working in K-pop right now”. I almost commented, “but but but but…Le Sserafim.”

    I still think Le Sserafim is the best group on stage…I think their performance skills are pretty undeniable.

    But I am for sure disappointed by this. I dislike that the melodic chorus portion played in the teaser is just repeated and undeveloped. I think there is alternative universe where this was an awesome song.

    Also I want to add that if you’re gonna compare this and Itzy’s “Not Shy”, I definitely prefer this.

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  24. I want to say I’ m not going to forgive them for this bland song, but I’ m honestly not that passionate about my opinion. It’s just ..eh.

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  25. they get a feature from one of the, if not THEEE most incomparable disco/funk guitarist & composer of all time, just to let him work on a bland trap beat that we’ve heard before. we could’ve gotten such an epic disco track from lsrfm like i’m actually so pissed

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  26. What the hell was this mess ? , the only thing i remember of it is Unforgiven being shouted at me a thousand times , no melody , no real singing , it’s a irritating , uninspired done a million times before soulless track , i’m.ll sorry for this group that this is what they get for a title track

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  27. This is kinda just ok and there. I feel like these girls put out so much on stage, they elevate literally any sing, but I don’t know why they keep getting this title tracks they have to work so hard for. I like Antifragile but it definitely also toes the line between catchy and annoying. Also the heavy vocal processing is becoming a Hybe trademark and I don’t see why, when they have artists that can deliver. I will try the rest of the album though, as everyone seems to be feeling positive about it.

    The worst thing is that I would buy a concert ticket without looking back because I honestly do believe Le Sserafim are the best performers of their gen on stage. They have such a strong presence and truly deliver in every performance.

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  28. I want to speak with Le Sserafim’s A&R team… I am not sure what their vision is with them, music-wise? This album is all over the place because of two reasons: the old songs, which makes it feel extra bloated, and the new songs, which jumps from genre to genre without any cohesiveness. I like some of the new b-sides as stand-alone songs, but hearing them in one album doesn’t make sense to me at all. I feel like I’m getting musical whiplash. I am disappointed Unforgiven (song and album) doesn’t look or sound anything like their Burn the Bridge intro or fallen angel/bloody rose concept. They missed out on making something really anthemic, cathartic, DIFFERENT, to wrap up this trilogy. How does a cowboy concept tie into being unforgiven? For a group that talks about being different and breaking norms, their creative team literally has no idea what they’re doing and is so unserious and disjointed. Everything they do, especially the social commentary feels… surface level, too corporate, not enough freedom. I thought the concept photos and trailer set the tone for this comeback, but the music and MV doesn’t match at all. Merch design is far better than album design, as if there are completely different teams working with the group with different visions and don’t even talk to each other.

    I’ve always seen their concept as high fashion, “I’m my own person” kind of thing. But I wish the music reflected that.

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    • The only connection that I see between “Unforgiven” and the cowboy concept is that there was a great Western movie called Unforgiven lol.🙃 Honestly they should have leaned into the Western concept completely or ditched it altogether. The half-and-half kinda doesn’t have much impact. The MV can be appreciated production wise but not so much in context.

      Seriously the Western references with the theme song etc in the trailer would hype up anybody who knows it (I was hyped too lol) but I think there’s very little chance the targeted teen audience knows much about classic Westerns and so wouldn’t particularly feel the mismatch in tone unlike somebody who is familiar with the theme 😀

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      • Ohhh, thanks for clarifying! I think Western/cowboy concepts are always divisive, even more so when not executed completely well. I wasn’t a fan of Itzy’s wild west concept, but Not Shy was so fun and fit their image as a group. My guess is Le Sserafim is going for “I’ve been kicked out [for breaking the rules] and now I’m an outlaw, the Unforgiven” concept?

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    • I would compare LE SSERAFIM’s career so far to an ad in an upscale fashion magazine. It’s sleek and stylish and purports to be deep/meaningful. But, ultimately it’s designed to sell something that has little to do with the music.

      This isn’t a judgement call as much as an observation, but the approach isn’t really for me.

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  29. I had just watched the MV over on “allkpop” before opening my “the bias list” email. So I wasn’t influenced by Nick’s review when deciding how I felt bout “Unforgiven”.

    I like the MV’s overall concept and now I know why. Seen it before. There are bits and pieces that caught my attention and went…WOW!! But not enough to distract me from the repetitiveness and the skipping hand in hand. I haven’t seen that since grade school.

    I don’t often completely agree with Nick but – here we are. Really want to disagree with Nick on this track cuz I was hoping it was me and not the song but – I can’t.

    LE SSERAFIM is one of my favorites so this is a bit disappointing. I don’t blame the group for it’s weaknesses. Those making decisions need to pay closer attention to what is being released.

    My personal rating is a solid “C”.

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  32. I apparently live under a rock and wasn’t aware of who Nile Rodgers was by name (recognized him immediately when I looked him up – I’ve learned something new today!). Had I not actually done my homework and just tried to figure out who he was by listening to this song, I still wouldn’t have a clue.

    The song itself confuses me, so I’m not sure how to feel about it. Antifragile did the same thing to me initially. I find the chanting “unforgiven” bit that the song opens with and continues throughout the song irritating. I do like the melodic post-chorus though (actual chorus? Whatever it is…). The Western undertones in the song seem to contrast really strangely with the rest of the song’s production. But I don’t think I mind the rest of the song…? This may grow on me. Antifragile certainly did, and I legit had no idea what to think of that one when it came out. But then again the chorus on Antifragile left a stronger first (good) impression than anything in Unforgiven did on the first listen.

    The rest of the new tracks on this album are a lot less confusing, and I agree with all those who are saying they like them better. I think No-Return is my easy favorite of the lot, but Fearnot and Flash Forward also both made it into my playlists on listen #1. I’m pretty confident Fire in the Belly will make it in there as well with another listen or two.

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  35. im convinced im the only person who actually likes this song. the pre chorus is really catchy. call me simple but sometimes i just want something i can sing along to. tbh i am a bit disappointed with the actual chorus but giving this song a 7?? that seems pretty harsh imo but this is called the bias list so fair enough. i guess ill be bumping this song in the summer by myself alone lmao.

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  36. self-proclaimed fearnot here

    i was looking forward to it since the concept pics seemed so edgy in a good way, but the song itself is disappointng? its not that bad to me, and yeah 7 seems like the perfect number

    i like the unforgiven talky stuff but they repeated it too much. the melody parts are also not as cool and catchy as antifragile, which i feel like they were attempting to recreate. just hoping the performance can salvage it a bit for me

    i do find myself playing it again, but whenever i do, i dont pay attention to it LMAO this song is so built for tiktok.. the rest of the songs are a lot better imho! ‘less confusing’ as one of the commenters put it. and i agree. i like the b side with super long title idk i dont rmb the actual title itself

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  37. Not shy is a great song to compare it to. both songs are something I could totally dance to do I don’t think they’re particularly bad. They are bit more restraint with their obnoxious-ness. Frankly this is probably my favorite le sserafim song(with a video). I didn’t return to fearless ever and antifragile just feels like a reheated version of what people of color do in the west from the song to the dance moves (if it wasn’t so popular i would’ve cared less). The song doesn’t deserve such an epic music video but I could actually see myself dancing to this. 8

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  38. I have mixed thoughts about this, but, after a few listens, it grew on me. I’m a Fearnot, but, I kinda accepted the fact that it takes time for LSF’s title tracks to grow on me.

    I kinda disagree that this was made for TikTok. When I first heard this, the first thing that came to my mind was their stage. So it’s kinda produced so it looks good on stage.

    The rest of the album though…is SOOO GOOOD!

    And…to be honest… I liked this…way better…than “I AM” which for me is too flashy. Huhu

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  39. UNFORGIVEN IS THE BOPPIEST BOP IDK HOW YALL DONT LIKE UNFORGIVE N YALL HAVE NO TASTE ATT ALLLLLL AND IF YOUR GOING TO REVIEW THIS ALBUM ATLEAST MAKE IT ACCURATE JEEZ I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU, IM SORRY YOU LOST YOUR HEARING AT A YOUNG AGE TO NOT HEAR UNFORGIVEN PROPERLY JEEZ SMH LE SSERAFIM SLAYS F U

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  40. Quite cool, I like it. Roughly as much as the others. You get what it says on the tin, girl crush posturing and an earwormy hook.

    At any rate, it’s SHINee month!!

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  41. “The thing is, I could totally fall for this concept if the song had been rooted in melody.”
    Basically summarises how I felt about the song. The melodical parts are the best parts of the song. Unfortunately they’re too short to make me like the song. I’m overall just done with this chanty monotone repetitive choruses like SRR, GBGB, now this.

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  42. I’m beginning to see HYBE as a department store of brands rather than being a brand with a strong identity. The only thing these groups’ MVs have in common is high artistry and production value and marketing machinery. Other than that it is still Min Hee-jin’s brand, Source Music’s brand, Pledis’ brand, Belift Lab’s brand and Big Hit’s brand etc. All made in a slick slate building.

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  43. I enjoy it. It’s a fun song and I flat out like the “unforgiven girls” hook. I don’t expect the revolution to come via kpop, but if this gives young girls at least a bit of badass-ness in South Korea’s super conservative mysogenist environment, then yay. Let it be their anthem.

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