Square-cut or pear-shaped?
[Video]
[6.50]
William John: Ytnewt ytnewt fo gnos taerg tsrif eht! Ytnewt ytnewt fo gnos taerg tsrif eht!
[9]
Katherine St Asaph: Like the last big-budget soundtrack team-up, “Diamonds” sounds like two separate songs: Megan destroying everything in her path, plus a good beat, and Normani auditioning to be the next Ariana Grande, plus a Marilyn Monroe interpolation and a good beat. At least the component parts are both pretty great.
[8]
Brad Shoup: I wish Megan’d made the whole song about knowing how to shoot. She almost did: it took ’til the back half of verse two before she made a thematically obligatory diamond reference. Still, it’s what you want from a soundtrack cut, short of Normani saying the title of the movie. It’s urgent and foregrounds its makers’ technical skills. Plus it’s got that dang foghorn blat.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Structurally “Diamonds” isn’t dissimilar from solid K-pop: churning electronic rhythm atop which a nonsense chorus sung by often irreconcilable voices competes for attention. I wish the concept were as fresh as the performer pairing.
[7]
Joshua Lu: Unsatisfied with just taking after Ariana Grande, Normani seems to have found inspiration from a new source: Erika Jayne.
[3]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: Maybe it’s just the fact it’s promotional material for a major film, but “Diamonds” is frustratingly suffocating for its glossy sheen. Both Megan and Normani give good performances, but it feels a bit too constricted, like the production’s bombast is over-calculated. The central hook doesn’t particularly dissuade me of how forced this all seems.
[4]
Ian Mathers: Whether the movie turns out or not, at least we got this and it’s fun as hell.
[7]
Nortey Dowuona: A heavy, bassy mower of a track is stripped for parts and built on top of Megan’s hooves, allowing her to hovercraft all over the beat. Normani just clings to her mane, then lets go, does a triple flip and lands on a thorn bush, before stumbling off, shaking gravel out of her boots.
[8]