"Love (Sweet Love)" is a song recorded by British girl group Little Mix. It was released on 3 September 2021 through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

, as a single in support of their first

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' Between Us''. The single was written by group members

Leigh-Anne Pinnock Leigh-Anne Pinnock (born 4 October 1991) is an English singer, actress and songwriter. She rose to prominence in the 2010s as a member of the girl group Little Mix, one of the world's best-selling girl groups ever. With Little Mix, she release ...

and

Jade Thirlwall Jade Amelia Thirlwall (born 26 December 1992) is an English singer-songwriter. She rose to prominence in the 2010s as a member of Little Mix, one of the world's best-selling girl groups. With Little Mix, she released six studio albums and achi ...

, along with

Lauren Aquilina Lauren Amber Aquilina (born 23 June 1995) is a Maltese-English singer and songwriter. Born in Bristol, she gained popularity by independently releasing a trilogy of EPs (''Fools'', ''Sinners'', and ''Liars'') whilst studying at school. Her debu ...

MNEK Uzoechi Osisioma "Uzo" Emenike (born 9 November 1994), professionally known by his stage name MNEK (, ), is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He has been nominated for a Grammy and a Brit Award, and has received the ASCAP Vangua ...

and Sakima; the latter two also produced the song. "Love (Sweet Love)" was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with praise given to their vocal performance. Described as a pop song with elements of synth-pop and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

music, with lyrics that explores themes of

female empowerment Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several ways, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training.Kabeer, Naila ...

, independence, and self-love. On the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

it reached number 33, becoming Little Mix's 31st top 40 single. It also reached the top forty in Ireland, Croatia, Latvia and Hungary. Little Mix performed the track for the first time during

The Confetti Tour The Confetti Tour was the seventh concert tour held by British girl group Little Mix, in support of their sixth studio album, ''Confetti'' (2020). The tour began on 9 April 2022 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, and concluded on 14 May 2022 at The ...

, in 2022.

Background and release

On 29 August 2021, Little Mix teased the song by posting a short snippet of the music video on their social media accounts. The song was announced on 30 August 2021, with a new snippet of the music video released the next day. On 2 September 2021, a snippet of the song was released on the online video-sharing platform,

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, a day before the official release of the song. "Love (Sweet Love)" was released on 3 September 2021, along with an accompanying music video. This marked the group's first official song as a trio after

Jesy Nelson Jessica Louise Nelson (born 14 June 1991) is an English singer who rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix from 2011 to 2020, one of the world's best-selling girl groups. With Little Mix, she released six studio albums and ...

's departure from the group in 2020.

Composition

"Love (Sweet Love)" is a pop song written by group members Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, with

, Sakima and

. The members of

Morcheeba Morcheeba is an English electronic band formed in the mid-1990s with founding members vocalist Skye Edwards and the brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey. They mix influences from trip hop, rock, folk rock and downtempo, and have produced ten regula ...

, Ross Godfrey, Paul Godfrey and

Skye Edwards Skye Edwards (born Shirley Klaris Yonavieve Edwards; 27 May 1974), sometimes simply Skye, is a British singer-songwriter. Her career began in 1994 when she and the Godfrey brothers (Paul Godfrey, a DJ, and Ross Godfrey, a multi-instrumentalist ...

, were also given a writing credit, as the song samples Morcheeba's 2000 track "Love Sweet Love". MNEK and Sakima also handled the production. The song runs for a total length of three minutes and forty seconds. Lyrically, the song discusses independence,

, and self-love, with the lyrics "I don't need your love to love me. Need my own celebration, yeah, Solo stimulation, yeah, Kiss my imagination. I don't need your love to love me" included in the song.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

was released on 3 September 2021, the same day as the song's release. It was directed by Samuel Douek, who also directed the music video for the group's previous singles, "

Confetti Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''co ...

" and "

Heartbreak Anthem "Heartbreak Anthem" is a song by Swedish electronic music duo Galantis, French DJ and music producer David Guetta and British girl group Little Mix. It was released on 20 May 2021 through Atlantic Records and appears on Little Mix's greatest ...

". In the video, the group appears as "gold-adorned goddesses" sat on thrones and dressed in gold gowns with golden headpieces, surrounded by worshippers in a garden greenhouse. In an Instagram post, Douek said that "The concept was inspired by the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

art movement and the lesser known Sisterhood that romanticised nature and emboldened women through painting". He continued by explaining that he wanted to "celebrate Little Mix as the regal queens they are; unimpressed by a cohort of Knights that vie for their attention". Douek then described the song as a "a celebration of self-love and female empowerment" and admired Edwards and Pinnock for their performance in the video, as they were pregnant at the time the video was shot. The video also contains choreography by Khloe Dean and the art direction was directed by Furmaan Ahmed.

Critical reception

Lyndsey Havens from '' Billboard'' added the song to her ten cool pop new songs list and described it as "the kind of punchy, soulful pop stompers that fans have come to crave from Little Mix". Rollingstone India, added that "Love (Sweet Love)” encapsulates the group’s long-established personas as icons of empowerment and self-love: “I been spendin’ time on everybody else/ It’s time I did it for me (Love, sweet love).” The synth-pop track employs Little Mix’s arsenal of harmonies and vocal variations, giving the single a fresh, anthemic feel." Conor Clark from

Gay Times ''Gay Times'' (stylized in all caps), also known as ''Gay Times Magazine'' and as ''GT'', is a UK-based LGBTQ+ media brand established in 1975. Originally a magazine for gay and bisexual men, the company now includes content for the LGBTQ+ comm ...

, said "Love (Sweet Love) is about love and passion which features vocal harmonies from the trio."

Track listing

Digital download and streaming # "Love (Sweet Love)" – 3:40 Digital download and streaming – acoustic # "Love (Sweet Love)" (acoustic version) – 3:44 Digital download and streaming – Dopamine remix # "Love (Sweet Love)" (Dopamine remix) – 4:01 Digital download and streaming – Emily Nash remix # "Love (Sweet Love)" (Emily Nash remix) – 3:18 Digital download and streaming – Shane Codd remix # "Love (Sweet Love)" (Shane Codd remix) – 3:18 Digital EP # "Love (Sweet Love)" (Dopamine remix) – 4:01 # "Love (Sweet Love)" (Emily Nash remix) – 3:18 # "Love (Sweet Love)" (Shane Codd remix) – 3:18 # "Love (Sweet Love)" (acoustic version) – 3:44

Charts

Release history

References

{{Little Mix 2021 singles 2021 songs Little Mix songs RCA Records singles Songs written by MNEK Songs written by Lauren Aquilina