Next: “Street (Dancing In It)” ft. Harry Styles…
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[4.22]
Katherine St Asaph: I, I will be King, and you, you will be saccharine.
[2]
Micha Cavaseno: What I Was Strangely Expecting: A Bowie Cover. What I Got: MOR EDM. For Fans Of: People Who Would’ve Loved This For Their Peter/Claire Fan-Fiction And Now Wanna Break Out Season One On DVD.
[2]
Scott Mildenhall: The curious thing about this is that it’s getting promoted with the bumpf that it samples David Bowie’s unfortunately rendered “””Heroes”””. Great (though of course Guetta did that over a decade ago, because of the cyclical nature of time), only, does it? WhoSampled and Wikipedia reckon it takes just four words: “we could be heroes”. Maybe an expert on publishing could clarify, but is it really likely that Bowie and Eno could stake claim to such a commonplace phrase? Could it be that 50% of the writing credit was given over to them just for assumed cachet from an easy line to feed the media? No idea. The song’s pretty watery in any case.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: Do you think teens know who David Bowie is? One of the EDM industry’s smartest maneuvers has been positioning their music as a complement, rather than as opposition, to rock. I don’t know if it will take you to the mountain, but it will definitely help you get a bunch of big-tent acts into Coachella. One of the acts (in bigger font!) this year is Alesso, and his “Heroes (We Could Be)” featuring Tove Lo is the genre’s finest example going of this synergy. Just enough of it is taken from Bowie’s original cut to get him and Brian Eno writing credit, but Alesso reworks it into a hands-in-the-air number, one that’s a bit generic beyond its recognizable hook. But “Heroes” gains power in how it syncs with its inspiration — decades separate the two, and Alesso’s version only implies it, but the fleeting nature of love sits at the center of both, each wringing as much energy out of the moment before it vanishes.
[6]
Will Adams: The “Titanium” reboot no one wanted.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: When did the predominant instrument in EDM/pop become a lightly picked acoustic guitar?!? Alesso clearly wants some of that Avicii money, because this is a completely blatant rip-off. And also just as bad as any of the hits off Avicii’s last album. (And what do people hear in Tove Lo’s personality-less vocals, anyway?)
[2]
Alfred Soto: Why take this Bowie hook into contemporary dance pop age when “Because We’re Young” sits there waiting for love?
[2]
Crystal Leww: I’m intrigued by the narrative of Tove Lo as an EDM singer as well as a pop star, even if “Strangers” and “Heroes” were likely recorded before Tove Lo was Tove Lo of “Habits” fame. Here, Alesso and Tove Lo take an old Bowie song with a certain sneering irony and turn it into a maximalist EDM love song. “Strangers” is the better song even for that purpose, but “Heroes” has timing and accessibility on its side. EDM as pop music is on its last legs, held together by Calvin Harris, whoever the newest hot DJ is, and massive festivals across the world, but I’m here for it right up until the point that it’s fully over.
[6]
Josh Winters: I want to sprint so breathlessly fast into the night that beams of light trail behind me and I’ve harnessed the power to charge into a sea of thousands. I want to shoot up into the sky and illuminate everyone with my electric essence, and I want to explode into a hundred different directions like fireworks, falling back down to Earth blissfully spent. I want to be invincible, if only for a brief moment. Energy like this should never be contained.
[9]