The pop debut* of Little Inez! (* for some EP-ignoring value of “debut”)
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Katherine St Asaph: Tayla Parx, like most pop songwriters who want to make more than $4 a month, has credits everywhere (partial list, selected for weirdness: Janelle Monáe’s “Pynk,” BTS’s “Mic Drop” remix; Xtina’s “Accelerate”), but she’s best known for her hits with Ariana Grande, most recently “Thank U, Next” and “7 Rings.” It’s not hard to see why they work so well together. Both are former theater kids, and both gravitate in their music toward modern twists on stagey-retro stylings, like the stately organs and fluting vocals of “I Want You.” The track comes off as a draft of “Thank U, Next” — I almost suspect it was meant as that, but scrapped for Ariana in favor of the magnanimous meme you all know because a chorus like “I want you, and you, and you and you, too” might come off glib when one of the “you”s in question wasn’t dumped but died. Or perhaps it’s the midtempo-ness of the song; “I Want You” is fine and hooky, but not quite up to slipping in “this song is a smash.”
[6]
Vikram Joseph: There’s big Tove Styrke energy here. It doesn’t quite fizz in the way that “Mistakes” or “On The Level” do — the weird:bubblegum ratio isn’t quite far enough to the former — but it’s still heart-swelling pop music, with an ascending chord progression on the verses that I’m a sucker for in any context, and a satisfyingly deep plunge into the cold pool of the chorus. It’s cherry-blossom pop for these early, dreamy days of spring.
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Ramzi Awn: Strong songwriting, but Parx’s voice isn’t distinctive enough to capitalize on the single’s solid synth work and clever bass. She sweats it out for the pre-chorus, but “I Want You” gets cute with the shortcuts on the payoff. And cute doesn’t always always cut it.
[5]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: A bit too twee for my liking, but I like the synth organ and how it accompanies that swelling vocal melody in the pre-chorus. That it lands in a more grounded topline in the chorus is smart, making a song about crushing on someone feel based in both wishful thinking and reality.
[5]
Stephen Eisermann: Maybe it’s the broken part of me, but there is something so romantic to me about telling someone you want them despite whatever bullshit you are sorting through. Plus, it’s hard not to vibe with the romantic R&B-pop track that Tayla so coyly sings along to. It’s, as the brands these days say, a mood.
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Ian Mathers: This was already a nicely breezy tune (I’m a big fan of the low-key organ-style drone that starts the track off and then recedes into the background of the production), but as I said about Fischerspooner, if the song is good I’m going to give it at least a little bonus for being about pretty much anything healthy that’s not monogamy (we have plenty of songs, thank you!).
[7]
Alfred Soto: The dynamic shift from heady verses to spare chorus brings me up short every time, as do the organ chords. Yet the identikit mix could be on a Halsey or Tkay Maidza single.
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