[Review] NMIXX are allowed to shine on “Love Me Like This”, which follows a popular formula

When it comes to NMIXX it’s started to feel like a bit of a circlejerk at this point regarding the weirdness and/or lack of quality of their music with K-pop stans. Not that I’ve enjoyed their releases either, but the reaction to their “Frere Jacques” remix seemed over the top. Well, their latest release “Love Me Like This” would seem to serve as a decent litmus test for whether people just like piling on or not at this point, as it utilizes a tested formula for this generation of girl groups.

“Love Me Like This” gets off to a great start, giving NMIXX a chance to flex their vocals a bit over a skippy beat, which is accompanied by rapping that’s diligent at least. The harmonies are a highlight throughout the song, in what is thankfully mostly just an R&B track, and pre-chorus especially seems to set the stage well.

Of course, it gives way to a drop in the chorus that sucks a lot of the built up energy down the drain, as NMIXX settle for repeating “love me like this, love me like that” over and over again until it gets to the “love me like this and I love you right back” close. While this type of chorus has rarely worked for me over the years — it feels even more like an attempt to brute force ‘catchiness’ against the listener’s defenses than second gen hook songs — I also don’t see what would make this dramatically different from the other extremely popular girl group songs with dryly repetitive hooks that focus more on a chic delivery instead of melodically sung bombast.

So while I’m not in love with this release of theirs either (granted, it could brainwash me eventually), that’s mainly because of the kind of trend they utilize. The fact that “Love Me Like This” is not a highlight medley as a song and it better utilizes NMIXX’s potential as a group makes this easily my favorite single of theirs thus far. Their previous style of mixing it up was always a high risk and high reward gamble, which clearly hadn’t paid off, and despite on some level respecting the risk taking, I’m glad JYP Entertainment seem to be moving NMIXX into a direction that seems to suit them better. Hopefully it’s not too little and too late.