Review

Song Review: LE SSERAFIM – Hot

Posted on by 48 Comments

When last we heard from LE SSERAFIM, they urged us to “act like an angel and dress like crazy.” The actual song that accompanied these lyrics wasn’t nearly as boundary-pushing as its sentiment expressed, but I appreciate how the group tried to bring some campy fun to the table. New title track Hot pulls things all the way back, easily standing as their most straightforward single yet.

If some past LE SSERAFIM tracks could be considered gimmicky, Hot dispenses all novelty to focus on a series of simple melodies and a muted sound palette. The song is vaguely “rock,” as in “we see a few shots of live drums in the music video,” but the instrumental is smothered in a sheen of polish that flattens most of its character. The production’s most effective element by far is saved for its final moments when a catchy synth riff injects unexpected texture. Instantly upon hearing this, I wished the rest of Hot had found a way of incorporating more idiosyncratic touches.

With such a plain instrumental, the song’s melodies are left to do the heavy lifting. Luckily, they’re solid and sultry. At times, Hot sounds like something Sunmi might have concocted, though she’d imbue the whole thing with much more presence. Still, the chorus packs a nice sense of build that feels more fleshed out than most of the group’s recent releases. Confined to just under two and a half minutes, the track isn’t given much room to develop. Imagine what could have been with an extra minute of brave sonic territory just after that fizzy synth takes over. As it stands, this feels like half of a decent song.

Hooks 8
 Production 8
 Longevity 8
 Bias 8
 RATING 8

Grade: B-

48 thoughts on “Song Review: LE SSERAFIM – Hot”

  5. I can’t remember any of the melodies but at least this didn’t make me go “wtf is this” like I did with easy and crazy. If this come up randomly on my shuffle, I probably won’t skip it so I guess it’s decent enough for me?

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  6. I liked it as well, the melodies are nice & it’s nice to hear the girls sing in the verses after all the talk-singing they’ve been doing. though I would’ve loved a more complete song.

    Ash, though… easily top 3 b-sides of their career. I understand HYBE didn’t want to take any risks with this comeback but I think all of them would’ve paid off if Ash was the title track.

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  7. It’s your average polished radio-friendly, TikTok made music, decent but nothing too spectacular. The synths in the end are a nice touch, but apart from it, it’s an alright song.

    Rating’s the same.

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  8. Is this a joke..? 2:30 song? the downfall of kpop this year has to be studied. But at least they’re singing! Cant wait for them to win 10 music shows and miss all of the encores to avoid the live singing part! Song is definitely a grower, another tik tok hit for the girls.

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  9. This sounds more like a bside to me honestly… it’s lacking the punch a title track should have. It’s straightforward and plays it safe, and is pleasant to listen to, but at under 2:30 it really goes in one ear and out the other :/ The melody just feels too muted… 7-7.5 for me.

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  10. Boring af. 6/10 and these high score is only because I’m biased to them.

    After their Unforgiven album, all of their titles and b-side is so so muted. Where’s the melody? Where’s the bouncy instrumental and production?

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  12. very safe. so very boring
    on a side note,
    the break/hold in the video (I assume is not in the audio version), was edited weirdly, especially the point where the song start again, on top of being unnecessary (it is 99% of the time)

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  13. Ever since “Perfect Night” they’ve been on this safe space with their music and I find it so frustrating. Like give me something MORE! I KNOW YOU CAN!

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      • crazy might not have adhered to trends the same way their smart/easy tt combo did, but it still didn’t reach as far into dangerous territory as it could have done with an experimental/”crazy” track. to summarise, it didn’t risk as much as it could have.

        I understand if others have a different idea of it, but to me, it was a catchy TikTok-esque song with fun catchphrases (all the girls are girling girling, act like an angel and dress like crazy, back in the days, etc) to repeat over and over to yourself.

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  14. I liked it immediately; disappointingly, the end suggested a longer outro that ends way too abruptly, but that’s the nature of Kpop these days. I mean, you could just put it on the loop, ramp it up with increasing energy and gusto, slap some laughs and giggles over it, and you’d have a perfect fade out. It’s not that hard… sigh…

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  15. boringggggg, I kept being reminded of Illit’s Cherish and that’s the worst thing you can do, making one be reminded of even more boring music, sigh ~ if other music markets weren’t killing it rn, I would’ve said this has been the worst year in music

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      • can’t wait to see how hybe tries to incorporate 90s fashion show lesbian country into their roster of currently disingenuous pop that has about the same amount of flavour in it as boiled noodles with no sauce and no spice

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        • the production on brat tired me out after a few listens so i won’t really speak up for charli despite her having a huge win with “brat summer” last year, but imo chappell does have a few stellar tracks. super graphic ultra modern girl for one. some of her tracks are oddly boring for an artist with this much charisma, though- after midnight is a song i always skip from midwest princess.

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  19. This isn’t burning hot. This is more like when you put a pot of water on to boil and after 2 minutes and 48 seconds you check and there’s only small bubbles percolating on the inside so you decide to dump it and listen to something else.

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  21. Pretty good song. I like the idea of the bass playing a main role, which I believe is quite rare in Kpop. Would have done wonders if the bass actually took on a more leading character as well. From what I can hear, it loops a riff throughout the entire track, that’s a bit lazy but what can you do. The finale is nice, I always appreciate songs that actually try to evolve musically, which is not as common anymore as one would like to think.

    I get the “radio music” criticism, but let’s be honest with ourselves here, all Kpop is radio music, some songs just hide it better. In terms of pure musicality, I don’t mind this at all.

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  22. yall are so sour and never satisfied with anything, not EVERYTHING has to be hard hitting or a game changer, they’re allowed to have tame songs, I’m sure they don’t care if you think it’s boring or not, make a song yourself and see if you can do better, it’s nice and relaxing, kpop stans annoy the fuck outta me.

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  24. I really like this mini (except the very last song, and though every song seems to be missing a grand finale that would have made it memorable). It is summery and sad in a way that I find compelling.

    Thought I wouldn’t like Hot but I keep coming back to it.

    Come over feels like it could have an added 15 seconds of heartwrenching repeated “come over” demands with the same kind of instrumentals from the intro and/or full blown passionate strings (like “I really need somebody to come over and dance right now because everything’s falling apart”). Well, this is how I hear it anyway.

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  26. This score is too high, you playing favourite, if Itzy, nmixx or bp, release this you’d go on and on about how boring it was. This is a 6, and that’s me being nice.

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    • They just rated the new Nmixx release an 8 as well; maybe their standards are so low this year since every release in 2025 has been a snooze

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    • I don’t think these 3 examples are fair to Nick.

      NMIXX: Nick has mentioned them a lot lately, and nearly always in very complimentary ways. They are consistently on the Risers list after releases. Know about me and Hot I think have a lot in common, and their scores reflect that, too.

      ITZY: Nick was high on more of their recent releases than less. See Yeji’s solo project, Imaginary Friend, and especially Untouchable.

      Blackpink: Nick just inducted one of their songs to the Legendary list last year. BP goes from way low to way high ratings on this blog, that’s just fair opinions being expressed.

      I was lukewarm on Hot at first but I weirdly keep going back to it, so maybe there is some McDonalds style addictive magic they are tapping into that brings me back even if it isn’t good for me ;p

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  27. ig everyone has different taste. I really liked this one compared to their other songs . most probably because it focus on vocal presentation a lot. But I really like the song and the retro vibe and the instrumental , just everything about except that it’s criminally short

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