A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve.
Much of K-pop — and especially HYBE — has been attempting to create the perfect two-minute, hyperpop-adjacent dance track. This is more difficult than it sounds. You don’t have much runtime to play around with, so you’ve got to calibrate your hooks just right. And since those hooks tend to be ultra-repetitive, they must be both instantly catchy and durable enough to withstand multiple go-rounds. Very few of these tracks get it right and even fewer get it perfect, but LE SSERAFIM’s AEIOU comes pretty darn close.
This is going to be a very obscure reference (one of this blog’s specialties!) but for some reason the layered chorus of AEIOU reminds me of the 80s italo-disco hit Challenger by Baby’s Gang. I don’t know why this comparison popped into my head, but it happened almost instantly. Challenger happens to be a personal favorite because it’s very awesome and deeply weird. AEIOU is slightly awesome and slightly weird, but I’ll take “slightly” over “not at all” any day — especially this year. I have no idea how the song will hold up, but the hook absolutely bangs and I much prefer this to all the Whiplashes and Lemonades and the many copycats that came in their wake. For me, it’s easily LE SSERAFIM’s most successful track since Spaghetti.
| Hooks | 9 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
Grade: B
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Undoubtedly this was more influenced by ABCDEFU and other such spelling exercises. It’s fine.
My mind went to this one from my early youth. … so here is the funny thing, I had to google it to find THE song I remembered, and it seems there were multiple from the 80’s spelling out the alphabet. Oh look it has a keytar (like object). If the music didn’t already, the keytar dates it to a very specific time. Oh man, this video is awesome. I don’t remember ever seeing it on MTV. The boom box. The dance.
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What a fun video ! I’d never seen or heard this one. It stokes my jealousy that I only got to to live through two years of the 1980’s (and as a stupid baby!)
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The post-chorus did play a good pingback to their own Spaghetti.
While the whole song is obviously intense in terms of production, and more lean towards the hyperpop side, but somehow it remind me of 90’s Euro-Jpop. The instant comparison popped in my head is actually TRF – EZ DO DANCE, which they quite share the similar song structure, but EZ DO DANCE absolutely have a stronger arrangement and melody.
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And it remind of this meme too.
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candy pink magic hole flip phone absolutely solos this im so sorry
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also this is completely unrelated but in light of recent events im manifesting a full blown chart reversal for this song. like im being so deadass this is one of the best choruses ive ever heard in my life. n it sounds absolutely nothing like the verses but somehow it works
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n as a bonus no one asked for: my case for downtown by macklemore being mixxpop (and a masterpiece)
so first off the verses and chorus of this song sound like 2 entirely different songs frankensteined together w their only semblance of connective tissue being that theyre in the same key/tempo. the verses of course being standard old school hip hop (a given considering ol macky tapped like 5 artists from the dawn of hip hop here cuz again this was after the whole kendrick grammys fiasco thing) n notably the verses r the only time they appear on this song.
n then out of fucking nowhere here comes eric nallys loud ass going “DOWNTOWN. DAAAWWNTOWN. DOOOOOOOOOOWNTOWN” n the whole song turns into this like huge gospel(? musical theatre?) arrangement which starts out as this very VERY long prechorus that builds momentum until it absolutely EXPLODES into the main hook. n i shit u not this is one of my favorite choruses in any song ever its just so massive and life affirming n if u scream it out of ur car on a hot summer day ull experience it how its meant to be experienced. n most importantly: eric nally is the only voice u hear in this entire section. like this is fully his show n he owns every second of it n im honestly kinda pissed his career didnt go anywhere from it bc this had all the makings of a huge breakout moment (its cuz this was tied to macklemore ik but still). n like i said before it has no connective tissue to the verses like i wouldnt be shocked if this was originally an unreleased foxy shazam song that was repurposed for this song. but its truly all the better for it. like this combination of verses/chorus could have been a disaster but somehow it works
n i didnt even mention. this is a song abt a fucking MOPED of all things. like to make that a masterpiece of a song is smthn extremely hard to pull off n yet they did
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have to agree on this being a buried treasure!! i was much more excited on this track’s more breakneck beat and fun chorus over made my night. that postchorus is an absolute blast
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Silly, catchy, and overall fun! I can tell they are trying to give LSFRM an 2nd gen sound and I’m here for it!
(8,9,8,9)
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yeah, i have sorta mixed thoughts on this. it’s fun, sure, and i really like the heavily autotuned effects and beat for this one. but i can’t get over the lyrics and melody. the chorus sounds like a childrens song, and the constant letter repetitions don’t help either (i SERIOUSLY do not want to be reminded of ABCDEFU).
rating: ????? cuz idfk what to think
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The Challenger song also sounds like a children’s song at times, probably because it was sung by actual children/teenagers and the vibes match it but it’s kinda weird and cool.
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That Challenger song makes me sad knowing that someone made it being happy and what happened to it. :(((((
Rating is the same.
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lesserafim always have the best B-sides/Buried Treasure collections compared to their 4th Gen girlgroup peers and this song is certainly another banger that will follow EPTBW, SMART, and IRONY as fan favourite dance tracks. I rated it a bit higher than other recent similar kpop hyperpop attempts like KiiKii Candy Flipflop Phone and ARTMS Blue Blood.
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