The Singles Jukebox

Not well mixed.

[Video][Website]
[5.38]

Scott Mildenhall: Popstars need to play purposely unsympathetic (or at least ambivalence-inducing) roles more often. It’s all well and good being paragons of virtuous hurt, but martyrdom isn’t always the most intriguing option. Everyone here is culpable, and it’s that dissonance that takes a tuneful ballad a little further. Yes, it is a bit awkward doing an intimate duet between five people, but maybe the deception is working in multiple directions. Perhaps this is a direct follow-up to the “Love Me Like You” video, in which all of Little Mix were simultaneously pining for the same man. Everyone having an affair with everyone, in perpetuity.
[7]

Leela Grace: The Jason Derulo verse belongs to a different song, which is unfortunate because the rest is so full of longing that I feel like I’m in the part of the movie where the protag drives to the big dance to steal the mic and profess their love in front of God and everyone. 
[8]

Danilo Bortoli: This is really the week of nonsensical partnerships, isn’t it? This time around, though, I can’t quite really picture what was supposed to work in this song. Little Mix are stepping out of their usual comfort zone in here, even when they do nothing but enter sad, generic ballad territory. Jason Derulo simply adds the male perspective to the narrative — the plot? Having a DTR. And I can’t stop seeing this as a downgrade for Little Mix — a mistake after a strong string of singles. A necessary mistake, still, since Derulo gives a certain radio allure to the track. But still a disappointment overall.
[5]

Brad Shoup: Can’t believe that they thought the best use of Derulo was on a slow-burn ballad with Halo percussion. Especially since “Want to Want Me” gave them the idea to collaborate! He’s fine: he’s got those reserves of intensity that substitute for feeling. When the music drops out and he mewls about the dancefloor it’s mighty moving. But by the end, I can’t for the life of me remember what the secret was.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Little Mix are not meant to do overly dramatic songs like “Bleeding Love,” nor are they meant to do overly dramatic love duets like “No Air” — and neither is Jason Derulo, a nice guy with a popstar-thin voice.
[4]

Alfred Soto: Little Mix is the last person whom I’d ask to delineate any kind of “secret” trope. Derulo, hot off his best album, crumples when a track demands sensitivity. 
[5]

Jonathan Bogart: Little Mix are probably my favorite girl group of the 2010s (not that they have a lot of competition), and Derulo is a perfectly adequate pop singer who’s had a recent string of good-to-great songs; so the disappointment of this late-00s Tedderverse schlock is more severe than if it had been a couple of no-names bellowing over a pretty synth-billow pattern.
[5]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: This can be a perfect Eurovision entry for the UK, as Perrie’s choruses are pompous and cheesy (the girl’s got pipes!) and the whole Romeo and Juliet thing with Derulo could work there. It could only work there, though, but it’s still competent considering Britain’s shameful recent Eurovision run. 
[4]