No, because you’re all like twelve or something.
[Video][Website]
[4.38]
Alfred Soto: The sexual torment delineated in the lyrics and those vocal melodies, courtesy of Bruno Mars, show a promise that’s torpedoed by a singer who can’t leave the torment well enough alone and able to speak for itself. Thank you, Bruno Mars.
[3]
Anthony Easton: You should go, but you can leave those “ooh-ooh”s with you.
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: The verses… whatever, completely unremarkable come-ons about drinking and wanting to get to know somebody and getting interrupted by a friend. That chorus though is so goofy and out of place for what amounts to a song about some kid trying to hook up — those chiming notes sound lifted right out of J-Pop bores Arashi’s playbook, and the lackluster horn mocks itself enough.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: The Vamps : Bruno Mars :: Hot Chelle Rae : everyone ever, but who cares? The swaying horns on the chorus are such a deliciously unexpected touch that I can’t resist.
[7]
Scott Mildenhall: That they’ve forgone the opportunity to market this as a Bruno Mars co-write (cast-off) tells you a lot about The Vamps. Like McFly and Busted before them (both signed to the same management) they are a Band, playing and writing their own et cetera and so forth. More than that, they’re making it clear from the opening line of their opening single that they’re not afraid of things like moderate swearing and – crikes-a-blimey – alcohol. All told, the release of this single has been infinitely slicker than the song itself (the horns should be hornful rather than mournful, though the bit about his friends is good). A combination of releasing on a week with low sales at the top of the chart, multiple versions available on iTunes and CDs – discs that can play music or you can hold in your hand – from their website very nearly made this one of the most anonymous UK number one singles in quite a while. It’s like the 90s! That it almost fell right out of the top 10 the following week scarcely matters: thanks to a clearly engaged fanbase they’ve got the passkey of a number 2 single. Nonetheless, even with a link to the all-powerful Global camp, how big that fanbase can now get, and how far beyond it The Vamps can reach remains to be seen.
[5]
Brad Shoup: It’s a teeny step into sophistipop. But I care neither about the narrative, nor their attempt to frame skipping foreplay as a bold innovation. The industrious backbeat and second-chair trumpet, on the other hand…
[5]
Will Adams: That the misplaced big band elements in the chorus made the most impression only speaks to how dull the rest of this Bruno Martian discard is.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: A boy band full of Nialls, sounding like a boy band full of Mike Posners. Am I just getting old?
[4]