Future singles: love-is-magic metaphor “Hocus-Pocus,” saccharine ballad “Namby-Pamby,” kiss-off “Willy-Nilly”…

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[7.11]

Katherine St Asaph: For those panning K-pop (sound unheard or not) on charges of being too frenetic or trebled, here’s disco that’s demure, every chorus sweetened by descants and every chorus greeted by a curtsy to the lower octave. Even its pop tricks like doubleclaps and cowbell and syntharangs and blorty bass (it’s telling of pop in the ’10s how increasingly compelled you are to describe it in nonsense terms) are polite, and even the false ending coos itself back to life rather than bursting. Not convinced? You can also dance to it.
[8]

Pete Baran: I really liked this upbeat flibberty-gibbet of a song. I am worried, though, that I may have just accidentally reviewed the theme to Super ABBA Land on the SNES.
[8]

Brad Shoup: Major ABBA vibes: the combination of baroque melody and bubblegum catchphrase. I dunno if it’s the barrage of lubs, but this actually sounds like a sea shanty. The coos are a fabulous earworm, placing the narrator’s yearning for PDA in a strangely sophisticated sphere. The producers really fucked up the false ending, though.
[7]

John Seroff: I’ve no complaint with the vogue-friendly, rinse-and-repeat charms of “Lovey Dovey”… in small doses. Placed in heavy rotation, the sweetness and cuteness of the burbling T-ara clot and cloy badly. It’s a Hello Kitty cake made entirely of frosting: a good mouthful, but best enjoyed in moderation if you value your taste and sanity.
[6]

Michaela Drapes: I think every bubblegum pop song should have an epic girls-on-the-run gangster noir video. Clearly. I’m not even sure the song is all that amazing without the video, but does that even really matter at this point?
[10]

Frank Kogan: “Lovey-Dovey” risks being a major disappointment, the vid a pointless rehash of melodrama memes that had been touchingly effective in the video for “Cry Cry,” and the track itself being a slighter take on the updated disco of “Roly-Poly.” T-ara are coming off a powerful year, in presentation and impact holding their own last summer against 2NE1 and Miss A, and in the fall winning the battle of the bands against SNSD and the Wonder Girls, in the process establishing themselves as a “deep” act rather than merely “fun.” That said, fun little toss-offs like “Lovey-Dovey” are generally what they’re best at, and while we’re grooving along with it nicely, cowbells and spacey background singing combine for moments of swirling mirror-ball lights-and-action super-space that are as awesome as anything else is even while just being another bread-and-butter rhythm break.
[7]

Jer Fairall: A dizzying array of bloops, whooshes, wobbles and clicks, but never enough to disguise the underlying stiffness of a track that feels far more mechanical than playful, like a robot programmed to speak in baby talk in the failed hope that you’ll mistake it for human.
[4]

Iain Mew: The chorus matches the high-energy sensory overload of Dal*Shabet and hits upon an even better phrase to quick-fire repeat until its nonsense becomes hypnotic. The rest of the song feels like a secondary event to that chorus but, half-hearted doom rave intro aside, doesn’t do anything to get in the way.
[6]

Alex Ostroff: The beat is elastic in the best way possible, and the way the cowbell darts in and out between the synths is the type of detail work I miss in the boshier material on North American charts these days. The “Ooohs” are a nice contrast to the otherwise percussive verses, and the way the synth picks it up as part of the beat later reminds me of the mirrored vocoder effect in Ciara’s “Promise.” What’s holding it back isn’t the song’s fault — it’s my difficulty connecting emotionally with lyrics that I don’t understand. That said, I suppose if this was the Korean equivalent of Katy Perry the lyrics could decrease my enjoyment of the song, but somehow I doubt that.
[8]