Song Review: Do It Like That by TXT and the Jonas Brothers

Never in my life did I expect that TXT and the Jonas Brothers were going to do a collaboration. But given the expansion of K-pop as a global cultural phenomenon, collabs between celebrities from the east and west were bound to happen.

It is really quite difficult to outright hate a song that brings so much unabashed goofy fun like ‘Do It Like That’. Despite clocking at only around two minutes and 30 seconds, I am not left feeling like the song was incomplete, or it failed to satisfy what it was aiming to do. That is massive problem I have with many of the shorter songs that are popping up these days, not only within the K-pop sphere but music globally. Thankfully, there are still songs that are able to feel satisfying in spite of this shorter run time. The most prominent example I can think of is NewJeans’ ‘Hypeboy‘, which even ended up as my favourite K-pop song of 2022.

However, unlike ‘Hypeboy’, I have some reservations about the song’s production that hold me back from fully appreciating the song. I greatly enjoy the musical choices throughout, from the guitar, the chanted section, the melodic intervals, and especially the tight harmonies which are become more and more of an anomaly in songs these days. (A pure shame, lol) However, the vocal mixing is so heavily processed that there is barely any distinction between TXT and the Jonas Brother’s voices. If that is the case, then what is the point of having a collab? Could TXT not have simply released ‘Do It Like That’ as an English song just as BTS did with ‘Dynamite’? Likely, the choice to do a collab is mainly based on the proposition to generate more buzz, and it will likely work. But in terms of music, it left me a bit cold.

Because of how processed all the vocals were, I don’t think it is even fair for me to judge the vocal delivery in this case, so I will withhold my judgement and simply judge based on hooks and production.

Then what about the hooks? I will have to admit, I already have most of the song in my head even though I’ve only listened to it twice, so I cannot deny the competency within the song writing. It isn’t mind-blowing, but it sure is done well. It does the job for what it’s worth.

Overall, even though ‘Do It Like That’ is objectively not a bad song in the slightest, HYBE’ vocal processing and mixing strikes again. It frustrates me because I know that they are able to do it in such a way that does not remove all the individuality of the singer’s voices (look at &Team’s ‘Firework‘ for the best example), but ‘Do It Like That’ absolutely removes the need for collaboration. In fact, I would never think that was either a TXT or a Jonas Brothers song. Sigh.

Hooks – 9
Production – 7
Overall – 8