Everybody wins the prize for not running with the “gay rappers!?” culture-war bait in the video…
[Video][Website]
[5.62]
Brad Shoup: There’s a come-lately vibe to this — the crispness of the video and its editing, the malty spelling of “loco,” the Diplo collab — but I’m trying to fight it off. My favorite bounce threads some melody in the overload, and Nicky’s freestyle rework of Lady Gaga is a mighty contribution. (The Spider-Man theme was fun too, but the bounce high bar was set by Gotty Boi Chris’ interest in Pikachu.) Bounce is generally about more, but there’s too much going on here. It’s a suite at 140 MPH, a magic show done so fast the audience forgets what the tricks were supposed to be.
[6]
Will Adams: Is today’s theme Songs With Severe Mixing Problems? My last foray into bounce music wasn’t so positive, and “Go Loko” doesn’t really improve on that first impression. I really don’t know what else to say other than WHERE IS THE BASS?
[4]
Iain Mew: “Go Loko” repeats past breaking point, but flipping the controlled chorus of “Paparazzi” to a scruffy and joyful “I’m your biggest fan/I’ll follow you until you fuck me” is a move of genius. Also “loko” is the perfect word, in sound and meaning, to squash into a battering ram of consonants.
[7]
Alfred Soto: The track isn’t interesting enough to suss out whether it becomes what it parodies. Plus, I won’t assume the person he’s stalking is another man, thus “I’ll follow you until you fuck me” would make me call 911.
[3]
Jer Fairall: A trade off: here’s a track that has all of the artfulness of the playground game of improvising dirty minded lyrics overtop a popular song, but a considerable amount of the fun of it as well.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: My neck is concern-inducingly sore from hunching over a laptop and sleeping on a dying air mattress for weeks. This is the first thing I’ve heard in ages that tempts me to attempt to rock out anyway, whether my head stays on or not.
[8]
Anthony Easton: I lost it about the time of the Spider-Man line. All of the word salad and lack of translation for people unfamiliar with the larger scene fell away, and I became aware of how much a crazy, wonderful, full delight this was.
[7]
Daisy Le Merrer: Remember that awkward feeling you had when hearing the full version of a song you’d heard hundreds of times as a forty-five-second theme song for your favorite TV show? “I’ll Be There For You,” “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air,” “Saved By the Bell” — they all have a three-minute mix that feels like a padded version of a better known jingle. Nowadays, TV has gone all respectable and theme songs are mostly a thing of the past, but you can still get that feeling from listening to the full “Harlem Shake.” All of this is to say: I wish I’d heard “Go Loko” as a thirty-second mix soundtracking some viral nonsense, because obviously no one knows what to do with this beyond the thirty-second mark.
[4]