A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Rich Harrison)…
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[6.64]
Katherine St Asaph: “Crazy in Love”: yep, still holds up.
[8]
Jessica Doyle: You venture into “Crazy in Love” territory at your own risk — or, for that matter, “Volume Up” territory, given that this is a Shinsadong Tiger production. I will give bonus points for the near-rhyme of “wait a minute” and “wae ieroni”. It passes — just barely — my test for such songs, which is whether I would put it on a mix designed to cheer a friend up after a breakup. But in the sub-sub-category of kiss-off songs performed by solo K-pop female performers, I think I may actually prefer Lee Hi’s “It’s Over.”
[5]
Alfred Soto: Brass sections signify joy, so of course artists hire them when possible. Often horns project the joy of which the singer is incapable, which explains the problem in this “Crazy in Love” wannabe. Actually, “Crazy in Love” isn’t even that good as far as Beyonce singles go.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: That’s a hell of a horn and voice combo Ailee has going on here.
[7]
Anthony Easton: The best thing about this: one line about lies and excuses, spoken instead of sung — the bare-bones of that dis, on top of the excess of the production and the oversinging — suggest something much more interesting than delivered.
[6]
Crystal Leww: Wikipedia tells me that Ailee was born and raised in the United States. My generation of American youth appears particularly obsessed with being nostalgic about music trends already. From Ariana Grande channeling Mariah to Le Youth sampling Cassie’s 2006 “classic” “Me & U”, people are borrowing from music that isn’t even ten years old yet. There’s nothing wrong with that as Ailee proves in her callback to the brassy 00s (which were themselves a callback). Comparisons have been made to Bey’s “Crazy in Love”, but this owes everything to Christina Aguilera’s “Lady Marmelade” and “Ain’t No Other Man”. The production is top-notch here with the brass just there to punch through over some funky drums. Ailee channels that sound, too, and her vocal performance and runs are nothing if not fantastically over the top.
[7]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: “U & I” is as conservative as the rest of Ailee’s recently released EP A’s Doll House, with throwback merchant Shinsadong Tiger (4minute’s “Mirror Mirror”, T-ara’s “Sexy Love”) eking as close to 2003-2005 Rich Harrison productions as possible. It’s the one moment on Doll House that actually seems fun, however, and Ailee is just as good at communicating kiss-my-ass as she is at kiss-my-tears. She pulls the hokey material up through charisma and vocal power, but one can’t help but wonder: she can’t continue pulling that hard for much longer, right?
[6]
Brad Shoup: I suspect but haven’t proven that the collectors’ vector for genres starts with the rawest, most immediate stuff, then spreads to the mature — slicker, aimed at crossover — examples. “U & I” conjures the funk of cruise-ship dinners, bygone cop shows, and Soviet showoffs. It’s the upmarket go-go Amerie and Rich Harrison summoned for “Gotta Work.” “U & I” really felt like a relic in the chording, though, and in the way Ailee glided with the band from point to point. Look at me, though: already reminiscing!
[8]
Jonathan Bogart: Breakbeat funk that just keeps rising and rising, big showy brass fanfares that make a fantastic background for her powerful, flexible voice, a bassline that shakes your ass whether you want it to or not — and I’m not even praising yet, just describing. I don’t care where it comes from or even what it means: this kind of splashy, high-velocity funk will always have my heart.
[9]
Will Adams: I don’t remember Back to Basics sounding this good.
[6]
W.B. Swygart: Sturdy Strictly Come Dancing-house-band-does-“1 Thing” affair that doesn’t quite match its singer’s charisma; she’s a good few notches up the ladder from, say, Agnes. Nicely engineered, firmly riveted, evenly varnished. There’s one tiny little thing that’s bugging me, though, and that’s this bit of the video, in which Ailee throws a dart into the outer bull then flounces off like she’s just been awesome. Which she hasn’t. The outer bull is not a double. That is not a finish. They didn’t even bother making it look like her dart landed nearest the bull. Fuck’s sake.
[6]