The world is chaotic. Everything about the mundane daily grind blurs together until it overflows. And then, from somewhere in this distracting, noisy world—ding—the dissonant sound of someone hitting the wrong note on a piano cuts through the rabble. It’s a sound that signals every iris, every aperture to my name is focused solely on you. After a brief silence, a simple, straightforward piano melody begins building a dreamworld. The cacophony of soliloquies fades away like someone’s turned on noise canceling, time stops, and all I see within the viewfinder is you. Everything else around you blurs into a beautiful bokeh, leaving you as the sole subject, vividly outshining all. There’s a subtle tension from the combination of the detached, chic vocals, the rhythmically repeating and minimalistic garage house, and taste of soul. The girls mimic fighting games with their school supplies on top of their tests, then press their faces against the full-length mirrors in a ballet studio, reflecting a new version of themselves. Exams assess skill level, and ballet dancers refine theirs 24/7, 365. They push back against the rigorous assessments and stifling rules that dominate their world. With every ounce of their concentration, they send the black pens soaring high above their heads. When they reach high enough, they explode into a dazzling new world of fireworks.
The world of Hearts2Hearts is about connecting through feelings—a maze of you-and-I observed through the lens of dreams and fantasy. Amid all the adventures and the bustle of everyday life, there’s no time to worry about what other people think. The only thing that matters is the world in my head, my personal philosophy, what I wish to pursue, and my own interpretations. Viewed this way, the world is a fascinating place. Right from their debut song, “The Chase”—a delicate, almost mysterious synth pop song with abstract, sensory lyrics like “swim through the colors of blue ink,” “floating quiz,” and “a piece of the fantasy”—the group has never let other people dictate how they feel. Just as poet Ra Taejoo wrote how you have to look long and hard at a flower to find its beauty, Hearts2Hearts sings about staring deeply at the person you’re with. Always one to get to the bottom of a mystery, the protagonist in the song enjoys their own “adventure,” plainly observing this other person and admiring what makes them unique. “Why do you always stand out? … The playlist looping in your headphones / What’s that song you’re playing? … Walk with me, I’m curious ’bout everything.” The reason the school days of “STYLE” glow with such coziness lies in her laser focus on her curiosity around this other person, watching them attentively and remembering every little detail—which is why the Hearts2Hearts version of a girls’ generation feels so retro and so deeply human.
The SM 3.0 era focuses less on an enterprising approach to building a new vision of utopia within a “Brave New World” dystopia, and more on putting a modern spin on the concept of “oldies but goodies.” As highlighted in an earlier article, “How RIIZE Takes Your Heart Back to the Past,” the producers who have built K-pop up over the years believe in the power of the standardized process developed over the last three decades, rather than in grand discourse and philosophies. The artists and repertoire (A&R) system that has been meticulously constructed on a worldwide scale since the late 1990s, the teamwork that refines it, the now widely familiar song camps, and the core experienced creators making optimal decisions, are all in good working order. Seeing Chris Lee, the chief A&R officer, as captain at the helm and KENZIE as the first mate, it’s not hard to envision the recent course charted by the SS SM in the 2020s and the uncharted waters it will navigate moving forward.
Hearts2Hearts’s debut EP, “FOCUS,” takes that rich tradition and reinterprets it to align with the values of the new generation of today. The mini album seamlessly fuses new jack swing that screams S.E.S. (“Pretty Please”), a pumping girls-night-out anthem reminiscent of Girls’ Generation (“Apple Pie”), and R&B that’s as sophisticated as anything Red Velvet’s put out (“Blue Moon”). Lush vocal harmonies, choruses sung in unison, and sleek arrangements certainly have 2025 written all over them, but they wouldn’t feel out of place in older music, either.
“FOCUS” is rooted in the legacy of the electronic K-pop music pioneered by SM Entertainment, harking back to the f(x) and SHINee renaissance. The polished, minimal beats blur all boundaries of time. Such boundless potential was hinted at with “The Chase,” which, despite being the debut song from a new group under a major label, said no to exuberance and went with something more laid-back.
On the titular track off “FOCUS,” which uses photography as a metaphor, it’s easy to spot the parallels to f(x) songs like “Shadow” and “Paper Heart.” The track masterfully blends the dreamy perspective of “The Chase” with the grounded sensibility of “STYLE,” completing a three-part process—exploration, observation, and snapping a picture—with captivating detail. Visual and other sensory lines like “put you in the frame,” “my eyes on auto-focus,” and “blurry behind the focus / Half-clear, my view” exist alongside more direct lines à la “STYLE,” such as “world minus you / That ain’t any fun.” The control always rests with me, they seem to say. Through my own perspective, my own lens, I view others from a variety of angles. The chorus, “I cannot focus on anything but you,” goes far beyond mere focus—it’s blind devotion and absolute enthrallment.
On their later albums, Girls’ Generation leaned into a promise of friendship (“swear we’ll be together forever”) that’s also at the heart of “FOCUS” on songs like “Apple Pie” (“Only you hold my long-kept secret”) and “Pretty Please” (“I can go anywhere / Holding your hand tight”). The result, tailored to the teenage members of Hearts2Hearts and those who look up to them, is an album whose lyrics set the stage for endless curiosity, deep questions, and sharing little heartfelt stories late into the night. The group has all the engagement, focus, and lyrics about intimate worlds for two that we expect from K-pop girl groups today, while also showing how this can expand moving forward. What stands out in their personal journey, though, is a kind of indifference. In such a deeply personal world, there’s no room for a third party—only you and me (“The center of my sight / Pushing the world behind”). “FOCUS,” as the name suggests, has a clear and unshakable perspective. It starts with the overwhelming emotions of a girl in love and expands from there to demonstrate how the group is constructing their own unique musical viewpoint and world. It’s a statement about what I see in you, the “STYLE” of yours I discover there, and what I can make out of our shared memories. As a coming-of-age story unfolding around deeply private and intimate moments, it evokes much of where their predecessors have tread, and yet, it feels entirely distinct.
Hearts2Hearts reflects the past, present, and future of K-pop through SM’s carefully refined prism, one honed over its long history. It’s not a colorless dependence on the company’s legacy—it’s a kind of transparency that allows for every color. The girl gathers her impressions of the world around her, starting with that special person, holds her breath, and focuses it all into a single moment—click—the shutter capturing her world, steadily filling up her album. What value is there to be had in this almost magical world—one where two people can be so deeply taken with one another—in an era when SM, K-pop, and endless stimuli constantly vie for our attention? For a tech-forward track like “FOCUS,” it’s ironic that it should center on auto-focus—something remarkably close to the human eye.
