Brits go Latin for appropriative bop.
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[5.90]
Tobi Tella: The track listing for Clean Bandit’s new album kind of seems like they pulled names out of a hat, but this combination works pretty well. Clean Bandit often gives artists songs out of their wheelhouse (I can’t imagine Demi Lovato would have done anything like “Solo” in 2018 without them), but this combines both artists’ talents wonderfully. The reggaeton elements are obviously a fit for Fonsi, and the vocal melody is quintessential Marina. The lyrics are pretty bare-boned, but it sounds great, and sometimes that’s all you need.
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Crystal Leww: Colombian-Indian producer MAIELI had a great tweet the other day pointing out that the latest wave in EDM that profits off the rise in popularity of Latinx artists has rarely benefited Latinx producers. “Taki Taki” rose to top of the dance chart on Apple Music but the producer is DJ Snake, a French producer who got famous in the American dance music scene. That song happens to be good. Clean Bandit here have teamed up with Marina of the Diamonds fame and Luis Fonsi of “Despacito” fame. Honestly, it might have been much better with an actual Latinx producer — the atmospherics are vaguely ~Latin~ (that guitar!) but the song is devoid of personality and passes by as quickly as it started. Clean Bandit have been struggling to replicate anything as remotely interesting as “Rather Be,” even if commercially they’ve been doing fine. Stream GTA’s La Nueva Clásica instead of this British nonsense.
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Julian Axelrod: Marina’s been off my radar for years, so I’d forgotten how much I love her voice: an acrobatic, ethereal wail that comes from her gut and hits yours twice as hard. It’s kind of amazing she hasn’t transitioned into the guest-vocalist lane sooner, especially since Clean Bandit come away with a banger just by staying out of her way. Luis Fonsi’s brief turn is unnecessary, but he’s smart enough to fill in the corners of Marina’s voice instead of trying to keep up. (And anything that pushes the song closer to Cher and Andy Garcia’s “Fernando” cover from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the best scene in any film this year, is more than welcome.) Hopefully this is the start of Marina’s second act and not a swan song for her first.
[7]
Taylor Alatorre: When Marina sings “guess I had my last chance” at 0:35, she’s referring to the song’s last chance of being any good. Beyond that point lies only despair, confusion, and a lot of wincing. People turned up their noses at Avicii when he was throwing some banjos onto a generic house track and calling it folktronica, but I much prefer straight-arrow blandness to whatever this discombobulated mess is. It seems like Clean Bandit took apart flamenco to see how it worked and weren’t able to put it back together again. Luis Fonsi should not be forced to bear the burden of coherence on his own.
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Joshua Minsoo Kim: Is that titular line an Elliott Smith interpolation? Regardless, this sounds exactly like the sanitized take on Latin pop that Clean Bandit would come up with. It’s saved by emotive performances from its guest vocalists.
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Ian Mathers: Here in Toronto, at least, we were still having 30°C days (for my American comrades: summer) in October, so releasing this particular track in November instead feels like a bit of an own goal. It may simply just be too cold for me to appreciate this, especially Marina and Luis’s parts, as much as I would have during the many, many months where it was hot out.
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Ramzi Awn: “Baby” succeeds in setting the scene for a proper dance party in the woods. Marina’s voice does all its usual tricks, and the track’s infectious fun complements its savvy composition. All in all, an unlikely bop.
[7]
Scott Mildenhall: The guest contributions may be a bit lopsided, and at times as if not in the same musical orbit, but that is intrinsic to “Baby”‘s heightened sense of its protagonists as tantalisingly trapped, their words in want of translation. Marina is the focal point — or at least may be for Anglo ears — while Fonsi despairs with perhaps greater force, blocked off from her attention by an invisible pane of glass. Almost everything separates them: language, affiance, place and time; but in that they are bound.
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Edward Okulicz: “Baby” is generic but sway-inducing, mostly due to Marina’s standout performance on the chorus, making it seem heavenly and sweet but also sad at the same time. The verses are rather bland, poking without passion or originalty at Latin pop tropes, and Fonsi is underused — it’s particularly good when he comes in at the end over the chorus. Yet, despite that, a song that’s 25% inoffensive and 75% a jam is probably good enough for it to be a big hit.
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Alfred Soto: To hear Marina sing “Baby” in Spanish might have fascinated me: her dolorous tones suit the chorus. As for “Baby” itself, well. Despite the horror of the acoustic guitar riff ordered on 1-900-CUBA, this isn’t the space for me to tap a police baton on the mixing board and growl, “This isn’t Latin pop.” Secondhand pleasures are still pleasures. There isn’t a single interesting pleasure on “Baby,” however.
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