Review

Song Review: NouerA – Pop It Like

Posted on by 20 Comments

The K-pop industry seems intent on messing with me this year. NouerA were one of my favorite rookies of 2025, with two mini albums full of fantastic music that drew influence from older generations of K-pop. Led by producer e.one, they forged a sound that felt unique and impressive. With new single Pop It Like, their management has seemingly thrown that all away. They’re now executive-produced by EXO member Lay and have adopted an ultra-tired swaggy hip-hop sound.

I just can’t with the janky ass pots and pans percussion that underlines Pop It Like. If that wasn’t bad enough, its chorus is the kind of obnoxious shouty NCT style “hook” that lacks imagination and appeal. The group is almost unrecognizable within this framework, their unique strengths shoehorned into trends and tropes that have already been exhausted a thousand times over. There’s nothing in Pop It Like we haven’t heard before. I could throw a stone in any direction of the K-pop industry and come across a track like this. What’s the point of establishing your own sound just to retreat to a knockoff of something else? I assume NouerA’s agency is seeing potential in the Chinese market, but given the fact that their Japanese member isn’t even allowed to perform there at the moment I don’t see this approach bearing much fruit.

Instead, Pop It Like is a cautionary tale about how to lose fans. It’s always a risk when you’re attempting to broaden your audience and it takes a killer song to pull that off. Pop It Like is far from killer, guaranteed to go unnoticed by the general public while pissing off fans like me. It’s a lose-lose situation and makes me mourn for the potential N.I.N (New Is Now) or Bring The Crunk we could have had instead.

Hooks 6
 Production 6
 Longevity 7
 Bias 6
 RATING 6.25

Grade: D

20 thoughts on “Song Review: NouerA – Pop It Like”

  1. I love when groups describe their comeback and they’re like “its a super refreshing and Catchy song that will get stuck in your head!”

    Baby. This shit is asssssss😭

    The way they’re asking us to pop it like and the only thing that’s popping is my eardrums from this mind assault ah song😭

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. OH NOUERA, HOW COULD YOU? AFTER DROPPING TWO EXCELLENT ALBUMS WITH BANGER TITLE TRACKS, HOW COULD YOU DEVOLVE TO THIS SLOP? ｡ﾟﾟ(*´□`*｡)°ﾟ｡ I HAD TRUST IN YOU GUYS TO TURN THE TIDES AND KICKSTART THIS SO-FAR SHITTY YEAR WITH A BANGER BUT NO, YOU DECIDED TO WORK WITH SHEEP SOUND-ASS, “I AM THE LIT”-ASS, “BRRT BRRT”-ASS, TRAP-LOVING FUCKASS LAY AND DROPPED ALL MY EXPECTATIONS SO FAR IN HELL THAT NOT EVEN TARZZAN WOULD GO THERE DESPITE HIS SHENANIGANS (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ AND FUCK YOU LAY, I HOPE A MOSQUITO DISTURBS YOUR SLEEP TONIGHT ς(ꐦ◺˰◿)_凸

    Anyways, rating’s the same.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Also, this BETTER be the first AND last time Lay ever produces for them and we get a N.I.N 2.0 for their next comeback as a redemption arc of sorts 🤞

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

  3. I’m disappointed to say the least. I don’t have much to say other than that I won’t be listening to this as much as NIN or number of cases.

    6.5(7,6,6,7) for me

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Well, given the events of Mention Me and the monstrosity calles YCC (Young Creater Crew), I can only think that Nick might be desensitized to their stuff by now, but again, seeing YCC, they might as well do something diabolical like the yodelling in YCC and traumatize this entire blog

      Like

      Reply

  11. okay so i love this group so much. watch all their content, bought all their albums, listen everyday LOVE this group. i actually didn’t want to open this review cause i’m so disappointed but yeah i need to vent with you guys

    this is garbage and i KNEWWWWWWWWWWW it was going to be garbage in August when i filled out the 3rd album survey and all the questions were asking about a genre change. i was begging and pleading fighting for my life in that google form telling them not to do anything crazy

    fast forward to 2026 when it took 6+ months for a comeback, at first i thought it had something to do with arno and anxin making ALD1 or maybe the fact they had the boys traveling a lot. never not once did it occur to me nouer A&R team had called in daddy warbucks to produce the whole thing

    i just wish these companies would let their groups develop naturally. stick with their sound, let them have their own niche. there was absolutely no need to hit the panic button here, the members suited their electro sound and agent concept EXTREMELY well, the group is growing a solid fanbase, sales have been consistently in the hundred thousands. i really hope this comeback is the exception and not the rule going forward.

    anyways 6.25 seems fair, i’d rate it somewhere in the low 7’s. the production on every track is just..really rough on the ears. in my mind this is someone else’s album that got put on nouera’s spotify page by mistake

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.