If you say so…
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[7.00]
Alfred Soto: After a first quarter triumph, she drops another single and maintains that high standard. The percussion and bass sequencer are the stars, one burble stolen from K-pop and one cymbal crash from arena rock. Key line: “You must be a star cuz I’m under you.”
[7]
Iain Mew: The bubble pop drops and apocalyptic hedonism are both quite 2011, but it’s a song about stepping out of time which does just that. “Tomorrow we die but tonight we will dance” is my favourite restatement of the til the world ends idea, placing a divide between the now and the future while keeping it looming right there like the moon that they’re blaming (either this one or this one, I think). Dawn Richard doesn’t ignore the future or give way to it; she remembers that it’s coming while throwing herself into now. So the way that the song shifts so progressively into stuttering, kinetic release is thrilling, but the effect is more powerful for the sense of that thrill being tightly gripped.
[9]
Dorian Sinclair: There are some songs where I struggle to pick a highlight, because they’re such a cohesive marriage of many, many elements I love. I adore the vocal effects in this. The lyrics are a delight — and Richard’s intonation (particularly on “Like we don’t know what we doin'”) is as well. The production and structure feel like a natural continuation from Blackheart‘s songs, while still being something new. That drum rideout is just superb. Put it all together and you end up with something even greater than the sum of its parts, a more-than-worthy successor to Blackheart, an album that ranks among my favourites of 2015 thus far.
[9]
Katherine St Asaph: The verses are cosmic scene-setting, a dance floor you enter through outer space; the hook is a dank grotto of a house drop. A track that truly earns the term “space disco.”
[9]
Will Adams: One of Richard’s more straightforward offerings that, coincidentally, wouldn’t sound too out of place on the new Dumblonde album. The ending comes out of nowhere and leaves just as quickly, but the lead-up to that is a pleasing toggle between half-time R&B and house.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: Every so often I try to reinvestigate Richard’s output, as the Cult of Dawn is everywhere and adamant of the unparalleled brilliance. Then I hear this song of undercooked Mark Radford-style deep-tech married awkwardly to overdone R&B-leaning “Trap” and these intended lyrics and I’m reinstated that I’m good. The transitions between production here are fine and cool, albeit somehow both not abrupt enough and not quite seamless either, but its not like there was much of a song applied on top of it to entertain myself with.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: I liked her less with Danity Kane and more with Diddy-Dirty Money. This is too Euro-EDM for my ears and commits the sin of being titled “Dance” while not making me wanna dance.
[5]