And. The. Scores. Go. Down.
[Video]
[3.86]
Ian Mathers: I was able to find some grace notes last time I was here, but it turns out I’m just a sucker for Alex Clare’s Joe Cockerisms in the context of it rubbing up against both horns and breakbeats. James Arthur has no discernible vocal personality (not even a pastiche one) and if the other elements are present the song’s so boring that after five listens I can’t recall they were there.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Replace the Chris Martined James Arthur with Mary J. Blige and the result would be a sprightlier tune than any we’ve seen on recent albums. Otherwise “The Sun Comes Up” is a dick-hardening ode that gets its jollies from a trop house preset.
[3]
Iain Mew: I don’t know what John Newman did to deserve being replaced in the same role by worse singer and worse person James Arthur. His horrible vocal, straining effortfully but weakly for gravitas, overpowers the dinky tropical production throughout.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: Well, sure it’s got a few more layers and aural trinkets than the average trop-house soundtrack to vomiting in a foreign toilet, but James Arthur’s unsympathetic mewl fails to convey anything close to the feelings of hope, beauty, or happiness that might accompany a sunrise.
[4]
Hannah Jocelyn: An above-average tropical house song, but one of the lesser songs Rudimental has done. The sound of their earlier music had limitless energy and seismic breakdowns, feeling lush even if most of the space was taken up by frantic drums and horns. And the guest vocalists frequently brought something unique to the song. You’d think the band would be able to adapt tropical house and create a soulful song out of it, similar to Naughty Boy’s underrated “Should’ve Been Me“, but instead, they just change course completely. The recruiting of James Arthur, previously known for making “Impossible” soporific and “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” even more soporific, contaminates the whole thing further. Who knows if James Arthur can do better (this is easily the best thing he’s been involved in), but Rudimental certainly can.
[5]
Scott Mildenhall: Rudimental sound diluted and James Arthur like he’s treading water on top, his surprise revival being strictly of the career sense, and in no way indicative of any reinvigoration observable here. They may form a large part of what got him through The X Factor, but his quasi-everyman painvocals come off in this mild context as being part of a gruff reinterpretation of a lesser Shawn Mendes song.
[5]
Tim de Reuse: The instrumental is ridden with Wal-Mart cheerfulness and timbale fills; the few pleasant, tasteful moments of vocal delivery that Arthur is able to squeeze out from underneath it are snuffed out efficiently by the saccharine drama of the lyrics he’s stuck performing.
[4]