Who got the power? Little Mix still, apparently…

[Video][Website]
[5.57]

Patrick St. Michel: EXO lean in all the way on the corniness a song like this demands, and they end up all the better for it. After the dentist-drill trap failings of “Ko Ko Bop,” hearing something so content in its awkwardness — huge choruses! borrowed Daft Punk bass! lyrics about music being great and important! — is a nice change of pace, even if it doesn’t have much staying, uh, power.
[5]

Madeleine Lee: Is it already time for EXO’s Super Junior “we’re funny now” years? It is nice that they seem to be having a genuinely good time for once, even if that good time sounds like how the music at the club blurs into generic synth noises right before you decide you’ve been there long enough.
[4]

Alfred Soto: It goes on and on, its makers in the throes of a fever heat: they know they’ve got a strong hook and they ain’t letting go. Songs about the radio and a song’s capacity to move you, though — EXO understand. 
[7]

Will Adams: Shamelessly gratuitous electro belch that’s dazzling enough upon first listen but loses its luster the more I realize it’s just an over-accessorized version of Deorro’s “Five Hours.”
[6]

Micha Cavaseno: The wildest thing is that the electropop of the beginning of the decade is at one point going to get nostalgicized and feel like the unfinished future we left behind for dozens of other phases of pop. Here it’s actually just reminding us that EXO have been running a little long, and it’s surprising to hear them put out a song that easily could’ve been from when they were a younger and more fledgling group.
[3]

Mo Kim: There’s a lot I could critique about this song. There are about three too many choruses; the rap break (“WE TAKE SHOT” and all) is clearly kiddy-glued right into the second verse; Jason Derulo would reject some of these lyrics for being too on-the-nose. Everything about this is oversaturated, like plunging a fist into an ice cream cake and shoving it into your mouth. But listen. Sometimes you forget your Lactaid, and you know you’re going to wake up to a throbbing stomachache in the morning, but you also know in your heart of hearts that the only way to make it through today is with cookies ‘n’ cream dripping down your chin onto the sidewalk, volume up to full blast, mouth forming a mantra to live by: “I GOT THAT POWER! POWER!”
[9]

Alex Clifton: By itself, “Power” is objectively not a great song. The chorus of “we’ve got that pow-ER, POW-er” is sticky enough, but everything else evaporates in thin air when we hit the verses. There’s no ease here the way there is in “Ko Ko Bop,” nor do we have the same vicious joy that coursed through “Call Me Baby.” What we do have, however, is a music video that elevates this song from obscurity. Evidently the entire budget was used for terrible CGI and none was left for a director, so we have a group of boys playing with random electro/space props with no idea why. (Check the way they shoot at evil knock-off BB-8; rarely do they all shoot or look in the same direction.) Combine that with a bizarre surprise twist that set me cry-laughing for a solid five minutes and we have a winner for Goofiest Music Video 2017. I can’t say I’ll seek out the song itself, but I’m going to play this video at every single party I host over the next year, and that alone is worthwhile.
[5]