우리 사랑하지 말아요 (LET'S NOT FALL IN LOVE)

The song

‘우리 사랑하지 말아요 (LET’S NOT FALL IN LOVE)’ is one of the two songs on E, the single BIGBANG released at midnight on 5 August 2015, the other being ‘쩔어 (ZUTTER)’. It runs three minutes and thirty-one seconds, and the Bugs (벅스) album page marks both songs on the single as title tracks. The music video went up on the group’s official channel the day before release, on 4 August. The Korea Herald reported the record as the fourth and last instalment of the group’s four-month MADE series.

YG Entertainment’s album introduction calls E the last step towards the full-length album, and describes this song as an ordinary love story told without cliché. The same text introduces ‘쩔어 (ZUTTER)’ as a unit song by G-Dragon and T.O.P, their first together in five years.

Reviews

IZM’s Jeong Yu-na took the song in the magazine’s single review for August 2015. After noting that the way it is written recalls Still Alive from 2012, the review says: “This familiar BIGBANG sound is made, little by little, into a song of their own by the character that is theirs alone.” Where that character sits is put like this: “Singing the chorus plainly adds something new, and even the swaggering lyrics carry through to style and sincerity.” On how the video and the song work together: “The music video and the song are tangled up in one another and aim at a point past the music.”

The same review read the single as the closing instalment of a four-month plan. “Having come as far as round four, you find yourself concentrating on the picture the eight dots have made,” Jeong wrote, and: “Varied, experimental songs are up on the chart, and BIGBANG can share a stranger and deeper range with the public.” The last sentence of the review: “It will stand as a good case of dividing up the force they have without showing the limits of it.”

K-pop Herald, The Korea Herald’s K-pop desk, wrote about the single on 10 August 2015. Rumy Doo set the song against the one released with it: “In striking contrast with ‘Zutter’ is ‘Let’s Not Fall in Love,’ a mellow, pop-rock tune perhaps most similar in style to the 2011 track ‘Blue.’” On the video: “The pastel-colored, dreamlike video features the five members running around a hazily-lit school courtyard, each taking on the role of boyfriend to five different models.” On the words: “The lyrics speak of a young, hesitant romance that is ultimately more self-centered and defensive than caring.” The review reads the song as catching the subtle insecurities of teenage love, in the writing and in the sound alike, with acute sensitivity.

Numbers

Circle Chart placed the song at number one on its Digital Chart for week 32 of 2015 (2 to 8 August), the week of release, with ‘쩔어 (ZUTTER)’ from the same single at number two. It was at number one again the following week, week 33, in which all eight songs of the MADE series stood on the chart together. On the same chart’s annual table for 2015 the song finished thirty-third.