The song was written by Pablo Bowman, Nicholas Gale and Richard Boardman, with production by Digital Farm Animals, Maegan Cottone. The song was revealed in June 2018 with its inclusion on The Pool Party album, which accompanied the television series Love Island. Snippets of the song were teased by Cheat Codes and Little Mix prior to the song's release. Cheat Codes and Little Mix announced on Twitter that the song would be released on June 22, 2018. The song's picture cover was released a day later along with some leaked lyrics.
Composition
"Only You" is a midtempoEDM song, backed by an acoustic guitar, that runs for three-minutes and nine seconds. It includes elements of electronic, tropical house and ambient. It contains backing vocals by the members of Cheat Codes. All the lyrics are structured in verse–pre-chorus–chorus which contain no vocals but instead an instrumental. Lyrically it is about love and post-breakup phase of a relationship.
Music video
The music video for the song was released on July 12, 2018 on Little Mix's official YouTube channel. The video features an LGBTQ+ storyline between two girls at a house party, one of whom turns out to be a mermaid. The video was directed by Frank Borin. The plot shows a girl, picking clothes for a party and it later shows her arriving and has trouble interacting with the others and she decides to sit on the couch. Meanwhile, a mysterious girl is seen hiding in the bushes and runs and takes a nearby yellow jacket and runs off and enters the party and Lisa and Peyton lock eyes and decide to dance and seen having fun together at the party, such as conversations, games and dancing. Then a group of other girls show up interrupting the two. One specific girl notices Peyton has her jacket. Angry, she pushes Peyton in the pool and she doesn't show up for a while. Worried, Lisa jumps in the pool to save her and find out she is okay and they kiss. It then shows the two kissing on the party while also showing the shocking discovery of Peyton being the mermaid. It then shows Lisa carrying Peyton to the ocean while also showing scenes of their greatest times and Lisa kneels on the beach sunrise where Peyton is, having to let her go.
Critical reception
called the song a "pop-dance crossover" and a "sun-tinged tune". They also said that the it was "so good" to finally have the girls back again. Rob Copsey from Official Charts said that it was a "pool party song" and that it is the correct song to add to the Love Island CD. Michael Ko from Billboard said: "It's most certainly a summer-made single, dripping in youthful romantic sentiments with an acoustic foundation".
Live performances
The band made a televised debut of the song at 2018 BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards, where they also won the Best British Group award for a second year in a row.
