To be clear, we do not award bonus points just for avoiding “fire/desire” rhymes…
[Video]
[5.83]
Katherine St Asaph: Something like the Black Keys fronted by Björk — chorus leans former, verses lean latter. No, I’m not sure I’d have asked for that either, but….
[6]
Alfred Soto: Confident and fond of clamor, Beth Ditto owns this fuzzy stomper that isn’t about anything other than her prodigious talent for song styling.
[7]
Will Adams: It speaks to the strength of Beth Ditto’s voice that by the end she’d won me over with her slightly sharp delivery of the title. But even with that, it’s hard to get excited about the same smoky guitar stomp that’s hovered around rock for years.
[5]
Micha Cavaseno: Wildly uneven vocals, with a spotlight and ghostly echo on dozens of bad notes like magnified evidence of crime… except we’re instructed to understand these are good things? The backing might be some of the most generic “REMEMBER WHEN INDIE WAS GOOD?” backing, and the lyrics make me feel like I’m getting cliches written on crumpled up balls of paper and then getting them tossed at my face. What’s truly the most infuriating thing about “Fire” isn’t that it sucks, it’s that everything about it feels like an assumption of some merit nobody here possesses.
[2]
Hannah Jocelyn: There are elements of Alex Da Kid’s monstrosities here, as well as the processed blues rock of this similarly named song, but the depth of the production and Ditto’s powerful voice give this song an actual soul that those other songs lack.
[7]
Alex Clifton: The bassline here reminds me some of the Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?” The difference between the two is that the Arctic Monkeys give you the rest of the instrumentation pretty quickly — Beth Ditto stretches it out for nearly a minute, giving a sparse opening before the rest of the band crashes in. It’s a wise move to keep you hooked. Ditto’s vocals are arresting: the way her voice wobbles on “Fiiiiiiiire!“, a little out of control but full of power, commands my attention every time I hear it. I like my indie rock stompy, dancey, and slightly fuzzy, and this delivers on all counts.
[8]