The Sorting Hat chose wrong…
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[5.00]
Katherine St Asaph: Not with that voice you’re not.
[2]
Anthony Easton: Can we not be inspired? Can we recognize that it is fall, and with fall comes winter, and death and cold and snow, and that bravery is overrated and retreat is underrated? Can we not be lionhearted for once, and recognize that to be courageous is to stay at home, to protect home turf? Can we not have those over-processed violins anymore, please?
[2]
Micha Cavaseno: So Passion Pit is becoming a genre of its own now. That’s cool, I suppose! Admittedly wish I wasn’t enjoying that buzzing 8-bit tsunami or the Main Streel Electrical Parade bits, but hey, can’t fight every bit of fun.
[6]
Alfred Soto: The preset bloops and deep synth riffs are catnip for yours truly, but the vocals are Foster The People bullshit.
[3]
Jer Fairall: Faceless American EDM meets personality-deficient Swedish indie-pop. Global indifference ensues.
[3]
Scott Mildenhall: Justice’s MGMT remix remains as exhilarating as it was in 2008, but to hear someone else’s thumped-up take six years on is somewhat displacing. Robinson doesn’t quite match up anyway: his thwhack-gap-thwack tactic wields power, and what lies between paints some grand voyage with more than a degree of urgency and weight, it’s just that that voyage doesn’t end up changing pace, direction or surroundings at all.
[6]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: This must be aiming for inclusion on Now That’s What I Call Blog House ’07, but hell, I liked blog house.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: Thin voices paired with muscular backdrops perform their usual trick of portending more than the content of the lyrics convey. They portend hard.
[5]
Iain Mew: Did Urban Cone happily sign up to Porter Robinson because they realised how much he could make them sound like The Naked And Famous? Did he pick them out with that aim in mind? Or both? A happy coincidence? Browsing their past material isn’t giving me answers, but, whichever way, it’s something that they’re collectively very good at. “Lionhearted” is more enjoyable the more it sticks to that template.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: The media hook for Porter Robinson’s debut album boiled down to “EDM guy gets sorta sick of EDM, makes album accordingly,” but dude also knows he needs something to play on the radio. And so here’s “Lionhearted,” the most predictable moment on an album that shines thanks to all the twists within. But just because it’s the obvious first single doesn’t make it weak — it’s a bouncy synthesizer swirl capped off by shout-along vocals courtesy of Urban Core, without turning into pure festival standard.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: Porter Robinson co-created one of 2013’s best singles that I didn’t hear until too late, the Mat Zo collab “Easy.” “Lionhearted,” while no “Easy,” has the happy elements of contempo EDM without being obnoxious about it, i.e. no drop and no shoutiness. This falls on the indie-dance end of the spectrum à la Passion Pit, only with a sunnier outlook and more interesting production. Robinson’s clearly interested in being more than just another EDM DJ; this is a pretty great pop record. And it’s a grower.
[6]
Brad Shoup: The vocals of Urban Cone (who were evidently named after the most boring food truck ever) remind me quite a bit of Alisa Xayalith’s, but mopier and more earnest and a bit down in the mix. Still! Robinson’s work is a gentle EDM nudge, a cheery stasis that works well for fall. For the bridge, he turns his synth into fanfare, and it gives his guests space to make their sighs known.
[6]
Will Adams: Even as the most accessible cut from Worlds, “Lionhearted” synthesizes yelpy indie-pop with electro house in a way that separates the song from both of its parent genres. The lionhearted parts are in the drop, obviously, but half of its thrill is the journey through Urban Cone’s determined verses. Unlike so many drop-centered songs, the components complement each other instead of clash.
[7]