What about Nicki, Alfred and Pete?
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[6.67]
Alfred Soto: From Prince to the Pointer Sisters, R&B and funk have donated circuitry and joints to a trope invented by Kraftwerk or somebody. In short, no song named “Automatic” has ever sucked (the Go-Go’s wrote a good one too). Stacking harmonies atop vocals over sirens and the twitchiest of synths, Dawn Richard aims a laser blaster at every fly boy who ever dared to think the blow jobs come with the invitation to the VIP room. Guess the years with Diddy were instructive.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: There’s not much substance beneath the sleek exterior here, and I can’t call it purposeful. “I feel so artificial when I’m loving you” would be devastating in about five contexts, none of which is The Stepford Wives anymore.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: Four years ago “I wanna be human yeah human” would have thrilled me to the depths of my soul, but now that autotune has stopped being a signifier of electronic distance and robotic remove and is just another tool in the production arsenal, “Automatic” feels less like actual science fiction and more like one of those stories that uses the tropes of science fiction to get at the mysteries of human relationships. Which is probably better than straight sci-fi, but it’s not as thrilling.
[7]
Will Adams: This would be so much more interesting if it were actually about a droid wanting to break free from her creator/captor and not yet another robot-as-love extended metaphor. As it stands now, nothing about it grabs me enough to make me decide whether the chorus was that monotonous on purpose or not.
[5]
Iain Mew: Takes a while to get going, and Dawn doesn’t really have anything new to add to a familiar lyrical theme apart from some briefly amusing swearing. On the other hand, when she sings extra lines over the top of long strings of barely separated syllables — “autoautomatic cos you think I’mautomatic autoautomatic cos you think I’mautomatic” — it gets really exciting.
[7]
Anthony Easton: The chorus — and just the chorus — with its moving between autotune and unprocessed vocals, buried under effects, and its beautiful steampunk candy, veers close to [10]. If this song were the 90 seconds between 1:35 and 3:00, with her Ballardian Pinocchio bleat of wanting to be human, or how she rhymes “operatic” and “automatic,” it would be [10]. Another 6 minutes longer, and it would be [11].
[9]
Edward Okulicz: In the wake of “Bombs,” this seems underwhelming and moving as if forced rather than willing, and in the wake of “Black Lipstick,” it seems underwritten and lacking in emotional charge — always a risk with both the autotune and the central metaphor being (over)mined here.
[5]
Brad Shoup: I actually do like the monotony of the chorus, especially as it’s used at the end: a dudgeon bludgeon, wielded until the unnamed dude shuts the fuck up. Yet another instance where the audiovisual package gets a [10]; she’s having one hell of a year.
[7]
Pete Baran: In many ways this should be a girl group song because it only works due to the four vocal lines at various points, but it’s a terrific piece of production. Are there any mad songs called “Automatic”?
[8]