Just wait for the 1-calorie remix…
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[4.86]
Alfred Soto: If this is sugar free, I’m Drake.
[5]
Iain Mew: The superior Tinie Tempah version of Dvbbs & Borgeous’ “Tsunami” suggested that this kind of blunt dance object could work well as a foundation for a more pop song, so T-Ara taking on the task is an initially exciting prospect. But it turns out that it’s just one more element tacked on to a stuffed hi-NRG track. Worse, it actively works against that song: when they sing about everything being sugar free, the music is a bigger sweetness hit by comparison.
[4]
Sonya Nicholson: With Jessica recently booted out of Girls Generation, the battle for S. Korea’s next top girl group is on. T-ara are likely too old and too ~scandalous~ to claim the title, but after years of doing every girl-group concept under the sun (read: sexy, cute, retro) in the “T-ara style” (read: somewhere between trot, Britney Spears and Max Martin), they’ve finally found their niche as a group that makes club music. Except, as far as club bangers go this song is not that banging — especially not compared to the cutting edge of underground EDM (and excepting that one time I was in a REALLY GOOD MOOD and thought this was the BEST SONG EVER, i.e. how Morning Musume got a [10]). Still, it’s well put together and by far the best of all the edits we could have gotten. Someone should really talk to them about their bad Justice logo rip-off album cover, though.
[7]
Micha Cavaseno: The breakdown into something that sounds like a distant bloc getting sucked into a computer game and the particularly slick techy bits of this dance-pop number are really something that shouldn’t be knocked. Unfortunately, the song riding it could be sent swirling into the air with a breeze.
[3]
Brad Shoup: The power source isn’t the Garrix-like lilt or the vocal chop, it’s the high-disco melody in the chorus. (It certainly isn’t all that tab-pulling — except for the Garrix bit, it’s the campiest thing here by a mile.) The production snaps and thuds around them; it hardens the luxurious wallow of that refrain.
[8]
Patrick St. Michel: Remember when K-pop songs were ahead of Western trends, and daring with their EDM sounds? T-ara must have forgot, or else decided a hyper-generic bit of Ultra-festival-baiting pop was good enough. The best sonic touch here is the sound of a soda can being popped open.
[3]
Thomas Inskeep: “Pneumatic” is the only word that comes to my mind when I hear this. It’s smart in that it’s a straight-up pop record constructed like a big-tent EDM track, all build and drop and build and drop. But like many of those tracks, it’s also a bit hollow.
[4]