Three out of four members of Sistar are making comebacks this summer, leading fans like me to long for the summer bops of yore. Nobody did summer better than Sistar, and it’s impossible for solo releases to fully recapture this magic. With This Love (이게 사랑이지 뭐야), Hyolyn takes a slightly more subdued path toward summer dance pop, pairing with Korean-Canadian performer Paul Blanco.

For most of its running time, This Love bounds along a brisk beat. Think The Kid Laroi’s 2021 hit Stay, minus all the cool synth production that made that track interesting. The instrumental here is slick and workmanlike, getting the job done without drawing attention to itself. Similarly, This Love has a couple melodic ideas it cycles through, repeating its chorus so often it threatens to lose impact. This hook is compact and catchy, but should have been flanked by a secondary melody that lifted the track to another level. As it stands, This Love‘s repetitive nature threatens to wear out its welcome before its brief three minutes have run their course.

Grade: B-