Not about health insurance, because Marie-Mai is Canadian and not a writer…
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[6.25]
Jonathan Bogart: Hey everyone, remember the alt-rock-dance-pop of the late 90s? Garbage and so forth? Don’t you miss it? Don’t be silly, of course you do.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: Electro-pop eventually was going to go through another grunge period, where everything is harsh and grainy and mixed to feel louder than it is. I’m not complaining; I just didn’t expect it to come out of Canada. “C.O.B.R.A.” makes excellent use of the sharply precise vowels of French — almost like being taunted.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Her voice doesn’t need the mixing board massage — it signifies well on its own. The sawtooth synth hysterics aren’t a massage so much as a kneading.
[4]
Anthony Easton: Living in Montreal, I have realised that the culture here is trashier, and more comfortable with its trash, than anywhere in Canada. It refuses good taste. This song is an example of that virtue.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: The metaphor’s apt; both Marie’s vocals and the synth sound brushed over by one of those venom lip plumpers, just a touch darker and slicker than natural. It’d have to be imported, too; this couldn’t work in English unless you’ve got a way of pronouncing A that’d pass as a grunt.
[7]
Brad Shoup: She was already on good footing for referencing a “cobra dance” without the recommended musico-cultural appropriation. Great tom-heavy backbeat, great reedy ascending synth riff. And Marie-Mai nails a peculiar vocal quality that mixes a haughty darkness with a raging insatiety.
[8]
Will Adams: “The cobra will dance for those who follow it” is the central line in a song that, according to its press release, “is a rallying cry, an anthem to those who do not want to merge in the crowd.” So I guess the part of “C.O.B.R.A.” that doesn’t merge in the crowd is its enervating and asymmetric chorus.
[3]
Iain Mew: Marie-Mai not-screams in the same “ah ah ah ah!” way as 2NE1, and the a half-second drop going into the chorus is a perfect example of the pop-brostep sound that I can’t get enough of this year. Even with a song that has more noise than direction, that makes my enthusiasm easy to win.
[7]