Hyperpop? Back in my day we were lucky if our pop was even wonky…
[Video]
[4.14]
John S. Quinn-Puerta: There are many aspects of the high school experience I look back on fondly, but teenage anger is not one of them. The vitriol that a wronged sixteen and eighteen-year-old can spew is not endearing or nostalgic, and is only relatable in a way that took some time in therapy for me to process. Glaive and Ericdoa’s anger in the chorus seems unfounded in the too-thin verses. Anger can be a tool. It can be a warning. But here, it feels petty and stilted, which itself is very high school. Points to the beat and synths for making me a bit more open to hyperpop; points off for the marbles in Glaive’s mouth instantly undoing the work of the beat and synths.
[3]
Oliver Maier: glaive and ericdoa’s voices fit seamlessly together on the hook and the voice-crack high note at the beginning of each phrase helps sell their petulance as self-aware, in turn slightly neutralising the stupidity of kiss-offs like “I hope you never see the light of day in a cell”. The song finds its surest footing during ericodoa’s verse however, where the instrumental really gets room to breathe, so it’s disappointing when all the air is sucked back out for the second chorus. In a way it’s a fitting accompaniment as his moment of reflection is cut off in favour of indulging pure spite, but I can’t help wishing that the whole song dared to go deeper, or at least stick to a sound.
[6]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: The emo guitars that define Glaive’s solo work are missed, and the beat doesn’t have the same addictive elasticity as Ericdoa’s prime material, but “Cloak N Dagger” gets by on the immediacy of its chorus. What that means is that Ericdoa’s verse is largely dead time spent waiting for the eventual sound of “Fuck you!” That’s fine, though, because Glaive pulls a similar trick as on “Arsenic” and flicks his voice upwards when he sings that line to ensure it’s the most memorable thing here. It’s simple, playful catharsis you can sing along to.
[6]
Juana Giaimo: It’s really hard for me to say something about the music (I guess it’s catchy, fun and angsty), when the lyrics are so bland. There are practically no literary devices, except a comparison of the person to a monster, an extremely common way to describe someone mean. I don’t know what emo music they listened to, but the three most popular lyricists of the mainstream scene, Pete Wentz, Gerard Way and Hayley Williams, actually really cared for the lyrics.
[4]
Harlan Talib Ockey: As far as hyperpop’s embrace of old crunkcore sounds goes, this shoots way past “ironically fun” and hits “I have too many brain cells to enjoy this”.
[1]
Austin Nguyen: Despite every middle finger slung into the camera frame, glaive’s exercise in braggadocio feels awkwardly restrained. The chorus throws away whatever momentum the pre-chorus creates with its thumping bass, relying all too much on the “shock value” of a crackedly sung “fuk u!” (as if a pubescent boy posturing with expletives is surprising) before the catharsis wears off by the second iteration. What comes after — half of which is generic parental-conflict screenplay (“I hope you rot in hell,” he screamed before storming out and slamming the door) — isn’t much help either, glaive a bit closer to gun-brandishing angst, yet not exactly there. But no other moment feels as out-of-place (and cornily structured) as the three-plus-tier cake harmony that glaive signs off with, which is milked once more during ericdoa’s verse. There’s no full-out screeching, clattering, thrashing, zero-actual-fucks-given moment; it’s almost all cloak with the glint of a dagger, but that might just be enough for another visit down the line to see if glaive ever hits the jugular.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Between the “Friday” anniversary remix and hyperpop in general, I’m noticing a disturbing trend of people deciding that 3OH!3 were actually good. Kids, I promise you can do better than rifling through our millennial garbage.
[3]