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
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
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😭
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Also can lay catch it because no one asked for you to ruin this group😭🙏
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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.
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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 🤞
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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
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Lay needs to stay out of producing anything my god
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Nick, I hope you have time to mentally prepare for that CORTIS album release 😞
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Safe to say that Cortis is the new and humanized Eternity
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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
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It has the pot and pan percussion you hate too 😆
The chorus is kinda lame, but I’m quite happy with it overall. 8
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Well, at least it is better than “Sheep”.
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lets see….
juding by the outdated memes and instrumentals, the half-assed chant, and unfunny vocal performance, this is even more proof that lay cannot produce a good hip hop track if he tried.
7/10 (6, 7, 7, 8) for me
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And don’t forget the popcorn and microwave imagery in some scenes of this MV which was last seen in Sheep!!
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This instantly made me want to go listen to Kepler’s Bubble Gum instead.
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For me, it’s NCT WISH – BUBBLE GUM
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Riku’s opening rap and the bridge from that song have been on loop in my brain for a month
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We were all rooting for you!
I’m too disappointed right now to even try my luck with the B-sides.
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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
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I can feel your frustration!!
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took a look at the rest of the EP for some reason. I can’t say it was bad but it was safe. we are young is definitely a highlight tho
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agree! that was my favorite track of the four, very 2010’s
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Uff, the concept change is certainly a choice. I don’t think the song is horrible, and the vocals are pretty good, it’s just that we really didn’t expect them to do this tried and tired NCT concept. Everyone else has done it already. Leave it to the OG’s and do your own thing.
I did not like any bsides which I actually had my hopes up for.
It is a shame, although I’ll say, the next song that came after this was “Bring the Crunk” and that one is awesome. Another song I dismissed because of the title🤷🏻♀️. Better late than never.
Rating is 7.5/10
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