Be sure to watch the lab safety video before hitting play…
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[6.00]
Ian Mathers: We’ve now covered three Mariah the Scientist songs on the Jukebox. All three have been excellent, and all three have made intriguingly different uses of their razorwire melancholy; the mid-collapse fury of “Reminders” and the postmortem tenderness of “2 You” here replaced with a steely grasp of something still very much alive. But even so there’s a reserve and defiance that indicates she’s not to be fucked around on: never has “I’m all wet” felt like less of a surrender.
[9]
Leah Isobel: There’s a strange harshness here — might be a mixing issue? The high end has an unpleasant sibilance that takes away from the song’s attempt at slow-burn sensuality. But I like this kind of straightforward pop-R&B on principle, and I unreservedly dig the string arrangement, which provides a certain daydream prettiness. We could use more of that.
[6]
Iain Mew: The strings and electronic chug appear throughout but never break out, keeping everything as a constricted smoulder. Dynamically it’s really interesting and works fine with the melody with a hint of “Summertime Sadness,” but all the references to cold sweat and wetness and fire-breathing creatures don’t go anywhere with it. I think she knows that a blue flame is hotter, but the metaphor and emotional through-line are both muddled enough that the song ends up lukewarm.
[5]
Katherine St. Asaph: Oh cool, Lana Del Rey&B.
[4]
Nortey Dowuona: Can anyone actually confirm that this is the real Jetski Purp? pls help
[6]
Taylor Alatorre: Even if Mariah the Scientist is just the capitalist realist SZA, I’ll still always be a sucker for a well-placed violin outro.
[6]
Jel Bugle: A scientist in terms of experiments that need to be repeated over and over. This sounds quite harsh and robotic, slightly monotonous — you wouldn’t listen to this for fun, would you? Still, her voice is nice.
[6]
Mark Sinker: “A blue-colored flame only emerges when the excited molecular radicals become dominant.” Fact-check: not a scientist.
[6]