10 comments for Alfred…
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[6.38]
Patrick St. Michel: The hook here is the subject matter, laid out clearly in the title, but there’s a lot more making Miss A’s latest great. Like the laid-back bounce of the music, which is the perfect soundtrack to a playground hopscotch showdown. Or those “hey, ohs” backing up the chorus, boosted by the interjections of “what,” “really” and “truly,” the latter two sounding particularly sweet in Korean. Or how the lines “boy don’t say/play” get stretched out. Or how the song also works in secondary lyrical themes about being OK with a modest life and being proud about it even if you can’t fit in good meals sometimes. Or how, after “Gangnam Style” and the Western media’s championing of that song’s “subversive message,” it’s great hearing a song with a point that’s also unafraid of being unabashed pop, even if that won’t generate any thinkpieces. This deserves them.
[10]
Iain Mew: “I Don’t Need a Man” is all confidence on the surface, particularly with the beat’s laidback sway and the group whooping in the background, but the “whaaat?” interjection introduces a perfect comic moment of uncertainty, and the mixture of the two is endearing. The verse translations don’t answer for sure, but the rap about sweating away on low pay and less than one good meal a day does seem to back up some ambiguity.
[7]
Anthony Easton: I suspect, by sheer repetition, that Miss A protests too much and that they need a man real bad.
[4]
Brad Shoup: They sure don’t. But I could use a dynamic melody and a glimpse of hope.
[4]
Edward Okulicz: The titular line sticks out like a sore thumb in the chorus’s otherwise perfectly frictionless glide, or, perhaps depending on your opinion, has a level of grit and determination the rest of the song lacks. Subject matter aside, musically codes more TLC than Destiny’s Child, which is an even harder fight to win.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: This isn’t going to chart Stateside, but it could — the trap percussion, “hey! oh!” interjections and feminish chorus are as perfectly timely as the melody’s perfectly pleasant. But if Beyonce’s their framework, “I Don’t Need A Man” is less this than this.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: The trappy rhythms are lovely against the melodic sashay of the voices whether massed or solo; when you invoke Destiny’s Child you’re playing with fire, but going on to challenge imperial-era TLC is practically suicidal. The raps aren’t going to make anyone forget Left-Eye, but otherwise they acquit themselves with surprising grace.
[7]
Alfred Soto: The girls ride the percolating beat, closer to a nineties Rodney Jerkins than I expected. A shame the vocals lack any friction. But TLC were overrated too.
[6]