World Premiere: Jason Derulo - "If It Ain't Love" [Full Audio + Review]
Ahead of his live performance at the iHeartRadio Music Awards this weekend, Jason Derulo released this Friday morning, April 1st, a new song titled “If It Ain’t Love” on all digital platforms. There’s still no confirmation, though, whether this will be part of Jason’s upcoming fifth studio album or if it’s something from his announced “Experimental” mixtape - from which the song he released with K. Michelle a few weeks ago titled “Naked” is part of. The mixtape was supposed to come out “in March”, but hey, March is already gone and no mixtape was released. Maybe Jason and/or his record label thought the best was to cancel the release of “Experimental” in view of the poor reception of “Naked”? Anyhow, hopefully Jason will do some clarification soon. For now, he is calling “If It Ain’t Love” his “new single” and has inked deals with radios for at-the-top-of-every-hour airplay for the song, so yeah, this smells more like “studio album single” - bye bye “Experimental”?.
If it ain't love, why does it feel so good? pic.twitter.com/aPn7iWOJRl
— Jason Derulo (@jasonderulo) March 23, 2016
No doubt Jason Derulo had in mind SUMMER when choosing his new single. “If It Ain’t Love” is a house-y commercial song where Mr. Derulo sings about unexpectedly finding love and wanting to never be apart from that person. “If it ain't love / Why does it feel so good?”, stupidly wonders Jason when he already knows the answers. Oh, and ladies, JD also reveals in his new single that when it comes to meeting new females, he likes to take things slow! (“Slow it down for me, girl, we ain't gotta rush it”).
Honestly, the production of the song didn’t slay me on the first listen, but as I gave it more listens, I kind of liked it a bit more. It’s definitely a “grower”. In any case, the best parts of “If It Ain’t Love” are the fast “oh, oh, oh, oh” in the post-chorus, and the urban bridge.
In summary, “If It Ain’t Love” is a good song for the clubs this summer, but I don’t think it’s memorable enough, nor Jason’s strongest singles to date, to make it worthy of a Top 10 on the Hot 100 peaking.