Song Review:: NOWZ: Hooked

• Release date: 2026 February 06

• Album tracklist: Hooked

• Album runtime: 3 minutes

 Okay, so this song is an English collaboration with Nigel Tay that was released for Valentine's Day. The last little bit, we've been getting songs from them that I really like and while I'm hopeful that we'll get more songs from them that I like, I'll understand if we get back to songs I like less again. 

Well, we don't need to worry about that, everyone. That was an immediate yes.

This is a very bright song, the brightest that I think we've heard from them so far, definitely the brightest title track we've gotten from them so far. The energy of the song is playfully high without being frenetic with an added grounded-ness because of how strong that bass guitar is. I recognize that it's not the most interesting thing to be playing for the bass guitarist, but without it, the entire balance of the song would be off. 

It's nice to see them show that they can do the rap-heavy as well as the bright, festival-type. This is such a cute song, with some very shy ad-libs poking out, but from this group, I will take any ad-libs at all. And, yes. This is a love song and it's sweet enough that I'm just smiling. Their English pronunciation is also really good. I'm impressed by that. This is that fifth gen brightness that we just haven't gotten from them yet, but we have it now though there's still that slight edge of maturity that I don't think they'll ever be able to be rid of, not that I want them to lose it.

No music video for the moment, but if it shows up, I'll add it in.