A kizomba artist wanders into a sea of comparisons…
[Video][Website]
[5.75]
Jonathan Bogart: Kizomba is an Afro-Portuguese dance music, defined largely by stuttering rhythm triplets, like a ballad form of reggaetón but more closely related to the Franco-Afro-Caribbean zouk. This is the song that made kizomba click for me, but it’s not a great kizomba song. Jelson is too thin-voiced and breathless, too Drakelike, to really carry the lush romanticism of the music, and his Portuguese and English accents are both pretty bad. But there’s some gorgeous production, and the video is very shiny and pretty.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: To my Yankee ears, kizomba is kind of Angolan salsa: very slow-hip-grindingly-sensual. “Kiss You,” sung in both English and Portuguese, essentially comes off as the b-list boy-band version of kizomba; your mileage may vary.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Moombahton Savage Garden in an underwater level. Which is a:
[6]
Anthony Easton: Giorgio Moroder production meets contemporary R&B. It becomes less interesting as the work speeds up, crowding out the minimal production of the earlier, more glacial synths. Minus a point or two for how off-beat the vocals are, and how flat they seem.
[4]
Ramzi Awn: Properly muddled R&B is hardly a bad look, and Jelson commits to “Kiss You” deftly. The fact that it sounds like it was recorded in a submarine doesn’t hurt, either.
[6]
Brad Shoup: It’s a wonder he can kiss anybody, let alone find them. The half-speed synths emit a fog; the percussion limps across the floor. Jelson sings as if in a dream: airily, oblivious to the closing synth riff that could buttress a whole other song.
[7]
Micha Cavaseno: Has the summer sheen and slink of “Ramping Shop” at times, with the intro out of the sort of wistful eurotrance that Araabmuzik used to mine and Mustard’s occasionally dabbling in. Jelson’s vocal is soft and cozy, but also lacks a willingness to really break through the texture of the record. Baby C, however, could have a future in crafting the sounds of yearning.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: A really nice bit of woozy seduction that never really gets to the good part.
[6]