No longer just potential…
[Video]
[6.75]
Katie Gill: We really are in a synthpop pseudo-’80s renaissance, huh. Maybe it’s just because my radio continues to play “Blinding Lights” and I’m always a sucker for some Robyn sounding synths, but this seems really familiar. However, it seems weirdly familiar in multiple ways. The verses are these stereotypical pseudo-’80s synths and handclaps, the chorus is stereotypical Little Mix: loud with lots of vamping with any sort of interesting harmonies hidden under muddled mixing. Still, I’m stereotypical pop music trash, so I find myself enjoying this despite the absolute nothing it brings to the table.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: A break-up song with no friction, no evidence of investment or regret, and instead more or less just a blast of pop energy. You could change the lyrics so it’s about still being in love, or about eating a really nice piece of cake, or winning the lottery. Everything is so sleek and agreeable that I’m compelled to tune the message out and sing along, and hope that I don’t accidentally sign in to a work Zoom call while doing so.
[7]
Scott Mildenhall: The self-awareness of the title line could almost be read as acknowledgement that it’s tough to sustain hits after a near-decade of them; continual, big hits at that. Being strictly in the line of that idealised, power-pop impression of ’80s music, this may not quite be anything a Little Mix single has been before, but at the same time, it is something many other artists’ have. As well-crafted and catchy as it is, it feels very route-one. “Break Up Song” was always unlikely to go down as one of the group’s best-remembered, but that doesn’t help. The strange thing is that somehow, if it were a debut single, it may have been that bit more indelible.
[7]
Michael Hong: Despite the fact that this really is “just another break up song,” another slice of radio fodder derivative of the ’80s, it’s so unobjectionable, so clean, that I wouldn’t have a problem leaving the station on a little longer.
[6]
Nina Lea: What I think distinguishes “Break Up Song” from all the recent eighties-inspired, synthy bangers is the way that Little Mix brings their greatest assets to bear upon the genre. Girl groups have fallen out of vogue, but I always find Little Mix to be a brilliant reminder of why these acts work — multiple distinct voices that, when combined, make you feel more than they would standing alone. Unlike other recent artists who we’ve docked for delivery, the girls of Little Mix have always refreshingly, guilelessly, and earnestly poured emotion into their vocals. It’s the difference between listening to a song by yourself in your bedroom and listening to that same song with all of your friends when you’re getting ready for a high school football game. The euphoria! The yearning! The ache! Yes, breakup songs “that play on and on and on” might be a well-trodden genre, but I wish they were all like this every time.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: Ersatz Carly Rae Jepsen is a much better sound for Little Mix than ersatz 5H — and not just her, call this “Blinding ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ Video Lights,” maybe. Melody, harmonies, and vocals are all diamond-polished (maybe a bit too much, if anything; Jesy is almost totally vanished). And there’s a breathless pulse to this, thwacking a little too hard and running a little too fast, that suits them, or maybe just suits me. But I still kinda want Salute back — let me repeat that, I want Salute back.
[7]
Alfred Soto: I have nothing invested in Little Mix. Perhaps #thenewnormal has deepened the poignancy of regrets-I’ve-had-a-few tracks when the stacked harmonies and electronically syncopated beats sound like identikit K-pop.
[6]
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A flawlessly constructed, if soulless, means to an end.
[7]