We don't need any forgiveness: Le Sserafim

Girl group Le Sserafim on Monday returned with its first full-length album, "Unforgiven."

The 13-track album comes seven months after the group released its second EP, "Antifragile," in October.

Ahead of the album's release at 6 p.m. on Monday, Le Sserafim members conducted a press showcase on Monday afternoon in Seoul ahead of the album release.

"We're already making our second comeback. Time really flies. We've worked harder to exceed our fans' expectations, so please look forward," the group's Japanese member, Kazuha, said in Korean.

Huh Yunjin explained the new album is different from the previous albums especially in its sounds.

"If we had manifested our confidence in the past two EPs, we focused on showing our dynamic sides through this album and our various vocal colors through the different genres," Yunjin said.

Fronting the new album is the title song, "Unforgiven," a hip-hop punk anthem that sings of the girls' desire to break free of the world's rules to make its own paths.

"We sing that we don't need any forgiveness through the lyrics, which means that we don't have to be defined by other people's words or judgments," Chaewon explained, adding, "If we had gone by others' words, we wouldn't have achieved what we have now."

The song samples the main theme soundtrack of the 1966 American Western movie, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

Sakura explained it was Hybe's executive producer and founder Bang Si-hyuk's idea to sample the movie soundtrack. Le Sserafim is affiliated with Hybe's in-house label, Source Music.

"He thought the movie's original soundtrack would fit our melody after hearing our song. He reached out to the family of the song's now late composer, Ennio Morricone, and the son gave us his approval," Sakura said.

Legendary American producer and guitarist Nile Rodgers features on the song. Rodgers has under his belt collaborations with numerous superstars, including David Bowie, Madonna, Beyonce and Daft Punk.

"I listened to Rodgers' songs when I was really young, so I was surprised at first that the collaboration was happening. It's still unbelievable. After hearing the names of the artists Rodgers has collaborated with, I remember feeling shocked and worrying, 'Is it okay for us to be going on this list?'"

Eunchae added, "We heard Rodgers covers the songs he had contributed in during his concerts. We hope he also performs ours."

Other overseas artists who worked on the album include Feli Ferraro, the producer of BTS' "Run BTS," and songwriter and producer Benjmn of label Roc Nation.

Also new on the album are "Burn the Bridge," "No-Return (Into the Unknown)," "Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard's Wife," "Between You, Me and the Lamppost," "Flash Forward" and "Fire in the Belly."

The members explained they produced the album while they were in Japan. The group made its official debut in Japan on Jan. 25 with the debut single, "Fearless."

"The recording took much longer than usual as we had many songs, and they were recorded in Japan as we were still amid our Japanese activities," Sakura said.

On such frequent comebacks with so many new songs, Kazuha said, "We're happy we have been able to release new albums with stories that we have at the time. We're also looking forward to holding our solo concert with them."

For "Fearnot (Between You, Me and the Lamppost)," a fan song titled after the group's official fan community, all five members contributed as lyricists. Yunjin, who has released three self-written songs under her name, was credited as one of the producers of the song, along with team 13 and singer-songwriter Jukjae.

"We wrote the song thinking of our fans. It's our first fan song and we treasure it very much. It's also the first song I produced, so it means very much to me," Yunjin said.

The remaining six songs on the album are from the group's first two EPs, "Fearless" and "Antifragile."

The quintet made its sensational debut on May 2, 2022, with its first EP, "Fearless." Six months later, the group returned stronger with "Antifragile," which landed at No. 14 on the Billboard 200, making the quintet the fastest K-pop girl group to get on the albums chart. It also earned the group its first million-seller title.

With "Unforgiven," Le Sserafim is already writing new records. According to the album's distributor, YG Plus, the album had racked up 1.38 million sales as of April 28, more than double of the 620,000 pre-order sales from "Antifragile."

"We couldn't believe the number at first. We're grateful that fans are recognizing our hard work," Sakura said.

"I can't believe that it's already been a year since our debut. We've received lot of love in the past year and have become more responsible," Chaewon, also the group's leader, said.

Sakura added, "We know that it is not easy to receive so much love in just a year. We'll never forget and will work even harder in the future, then hopefully, we can hold a world tour and a dome tour one day."

Yunjin said the five members have grown closer through the yearlong journey together.

"We were close when we debuted, but over the past year, our relationship has become even more intimate and tight-knit that we can be called a family. I want to thank my bandmates, and its truly invaluable that we're celebrating our first anniversary with our first full-length album," she said.