Solange Klimt…
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[6.67]
Alfred Soto: Solange’s gauze-wrapped moody brooding made this EP track one of its only analgesics. Lamar energizes the proceedings with wtf lines about hearing James Mason on repeat (what, Mason’s curt dismissal in North By Northwest‘s auction scene?) and against those rising “Twin Peaks” keyboard swells sounds creepy and insistent. But the Knowles-Lamar pairing has no frisson. I suppose this trend continues in part because it’s cheaper to drop a name than to rerecord the damn thing.
[5]
Anthony Easton: I am on the fence about Kendrick Lamar, but no matter how smooth, how elegant, how reductive and refusing of excess Solange is at her best (and she is at her best here), the lack of variation suggests someone who is rougher, less elegant, the textures clashing. Theoretically, Lamar should be the person to do the work, but there might not be enough variation, and too few similarities, which makes everything a bit awkard.
[7]
Daisy Le Merrer: True deserved all the praise it got, but the smartest thing Solange and Dev Hynes did may have been to keep it a mini album. They only had one really good idea, but they knew not to stretch it too much. On True, this is only half a song, closing the tracklist like a promise of a full blown version to come, à la Robyn. But the added Lamar verse doesn’t really take this any further. Still, even if this sounds more like a draft than a finished song, I can’t resist the contrast between’s Solange’s warmth and the beat’s coldness, so this is an:
[8]
Jer Fairall: The drowsy late-night flipside to Mariah and Miguel’s “#Beautiful”: Solange’s seductive mantra of a chorus, accompanied by a barely-there groove that is nonetheless utterly gorgeous, is allowed to occupy enough of the running time all on its own that it comes out sounding positively lonesome by the ninth or tenth repetition, an ache that Kendrick’s eventual appearance should by all means quell. Instead, his verse is anxious and introverted, leaving us with two kindred spirits trying and failing to reach each other across the voids that technology (“how can I get this convo to stay comprehensive / when the service is never working / and the wi-fi is outta commission?”) remains inadequate in properly bridging.
[8]
Brad Shoup: Solange channels Aaliyah for some deliberate vocal stepping (“hey young heartache” is wonderful, btw) over a quiet chillstorm. Lamar takes the chill literally, scripting a short film from the prison of his tour bus — alternatingly hopeful and despairing, it’s a marvel.
[7]
Will Adams: I’m imagining Solange and Kendrick sitting in separate space lounges, dazzled by the pretty lights and spinning slowly in circles. “Looks Good With Trouble” has that effect, lulling you into stasis until the song ends and you wonder what just happened.
[6]
David Lee: This evokes imagined late night meals shared in a car under the glow of a neon Taco Bell sign, flirty jokes exchanged between two strangers smoking in the biting winter air outside of a club, and hushed conversations conducted next to a campfire until dawn. It’s the stuff of crushes, the romanticized trouble you might get into with someone else. But these stock movie scenes appear for only a moment before they dissipate into a mist of emotions –anxiety, desire, and doubt (notice those moments when the synths drop out and all that remains is a hollow heartbeat of rhythm?). It’s a shame, then, that instead of letting Solange’s voice — barely a whisper above the feathery production — bring this daydream to its natural conclusion, Kendrick Lamar has to jump in and pull the plug.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: Like a lot of Kendrick’s material, I’m not sure this wholly works as a single; its lopsided structure ends up sounding like two mood pieces smushed together because they share a tempo rather than because they’re particularly in dialog with each other. Maybe it’ll make more sense on the new EP, if it makes he cut. In the meantime, they’re two very good mood pieces.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: When uppers meet downers: Kendrick’s triple-time agitated, but Solange’s liable to fall asleep on his shoulder. As a drug interaction it’s trouble; as a single, it just makes no sense.
[6]