Buried Treasure: LE SSERAFIM – AEIOU

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 an...