As usual, Golden Child gets the “bias group advantage” on this site. This means not only their title track and a buried treasure will be reviewed, but I’ll be taking a look at the entire new mini album Take A Leap. Check back over the next five days, as I tackle the songs one at a time.

1. Take A Leap // 2. One (Lucid Dream) // 3. OMG // 4. Moment // 5. Make Me Love // 6. H.E.R // 7. Pass Me By

MAKE ME LOVE

There’s no way I can write about Make Me Love without mentioning its cheesy-beyond-belief spoken word intro:

“You’re my love, make me love… this song for you, girl. I just want to make love to you, baby. Don’t worry about it no more. Everything gonna be fine.”

– The poet Jangjun, 2020

I mean… yeah. I just had to laugh. ‘Damn, daddy’ indeed.

It’s a pity that the rest of Make Me Love feels so generic. It’s easily the trendiest track on Take A Leap, driven by the kind of mid-tempo EDM beat that powers so many boy group songs. Thankfully, this one has a proper chorus, but it’s still missing that undeniable Golden Child charm.

On the plus side, I like the pre-chorus quite a bit. If it had been followed by a less wimpy beat drop, Love could have been an easy highlight. I’m also quite enthralled by the atmospheric spoken refrain that follows the first chorus and (unfortunately) never materializes again. For a track that’s aiming for a seductive atmosphere, I think the production could have been a lot more in line with this brief moment. I picture “quiet storm” percussion and inventive vocal arrangement – maybe even something like this stellar Hey! Say! JUMP song. Instead, Make Me Love is pleasant filler.

~