But what if the potion were Nyquil?
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[5.33]
Katie Gill: Nobody involved in this song was ever in the same room when they were recording, huh. It’s perfectly serviceable background music, the sort of low-key song that you can’t really dance to, you can’t really roll down your windows and sing along to, you can’t really cry to, you DEFINITELY can’t fuck to, you can’t really be angry to, but you’re not going to turn it off when it pops up in your Spotify new releases playlist that you listen to when you’re cooking.
[5]
Al Varela: “Potion” is a good song, and pretty much what I expected from the follow-up to “Funk Wav. Bounces Vol. 2”, but it still feels a little underwhelming to me. I think the reason why that is has to do with the surprise factor of “Vol. 1”. The first volume was very unexpected at the time, not only unearthing Calvin Harris’ hidden talents in funk, but putting that production against artists who wouldn’t normally make music like that. I never thought that Migos and Frank Ocean together would make a slick, disco-funk summer jam, but the fact that it turned out so well is what made “Vol. 1” such an entertaining novelty. “Potion”, meanwhile, is too predictable. We know Dua Lipa would knock this song out in her sleep. Pairing her with Young Thug would have raised some eyebrows in 2017, but in 2022 when by then he’s collaborated with artists from Camila Cabello to Thomas Rhett, it’s mostly just a fun bonus rather than a pleasant surprise. And of course, there’s a bit of magic lost when we now know Calvin Harris was always capable of making funk music. As a result, the song ends up being very enjoyable, and a nice presence on your summer playlists, but not quite the stand-out, highly anticipated event I think many were expecting it to be. Hopefully, he has more tricks up his sleeve that can catch us off-guard.
[7]
Kayla Beardslee: It’s been very funny to see reactions to this song like “It’s too low-key, where’s the chorus? ‘One Kiss’ was way better!” as if that wasn’t exactly what people were saying about “One Kiss” when it first came out. Only time will tell whether “Potion” earns that kind of retconning as well, but for now it’s perfectly fine poolside music or whatever. Are people still going to public pools? Do they play music there, or would a pool-core Spotify playlist just be garbled lifeguard announcements? Anyway, “Potion” is the type of cotton candy track that works best as an idea, floating out there in the abstract realm of hashtag-vibes. Don’t think about it too hard or it’ll dissolve in the water. Which tastes like chlorine.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: Just because something seems effortless, doesn’t mean that it might not have been better if some effort had been put in. This is B-game stuff from everyone. But it’s no surprise Dua Lipa sounds good over disco basslines , even if unless I’m paying attention I have no idea what she’s singing, and I suspect these are placeholder lyrics not ever finished or revised. Okay, maybe not everyone here — Young Thug puts the effort in and sounds just fine in Lipa’s wheelhouse, dare I say better.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: Harris’s Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 was an unexpectedly delightful, smooth pop-house album, so I’m definitely curious what he could have in store for the upcoming Vol. 2. But while the groove here is appropriately summery and languid, Dua Lipa has nothing to do and does even less with it (other than repeat the stupid “sprinkle with a little bit of sex, and it’s a [potion/moment]”), while Young Thug is on autopilot. “Potion” could’ve been great, but there’s no there there.
[4]
Oliver Maier: Dua Lipa is like a talisman that someone created to ward sensuality away from pop music. As usual her attempts at steaminess read like copywriting from a cocktail brand. Young Thug is not exactly giving it his all but he doesn’t need to really. He’s here to provide texture, and it’s sad to think we might not hear him outshine the headline artist on a pop song with about 30% of the effort again for a very long time. Perfectly adequate as a start to another instalment of Funk W- oh god dammit I just realised that it abbreviates to FWBs. Christ. Whatever. I’m sure this will be great as background music on Love Island.
[4]
Andrew Karpan: The opening riff has a kind of nostalgic immediacy that makes it feel like a sample that someone like the Alchemist would pull for a mid-career rapper, which makes it all the more impressive that someone like Calvin Harris could cook it up as an advertisement for his latest mission statement on the subject of background noise for backyard barbecues. But it’s good, by far the best record Dua Lipa has cut since her last album cycle, essentializing and providing a sort of commentary on her pop appeal by saying the word “sex” repeatedly, her Albanian accent lifting it into the air like a private jet.
[8]
Nortey Dowuona: I would simply like everyone who is reading this to click this line. One you did that, redirect your eyes to Calvin Harris, doing what many white and white-passing DJs did as they swept up house/disco/techno/anything electronic black people made/yeah, even trap has had this happen to it/as soon as whatever quinn/duwap kaine/carti/izaya tiji is currently doing is popular enough it will happen to that too: co-opting an authentic, emotive voice from one of black music culture’s most popular figures who pushed the craft forward in ways that white fox were either disgusted by or too eager to do this nonsense to notice. Dua Lipa presents a scratch performance, and was apparently never contacted to re-do it.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Young Thug remains an inscrutable presence — what he does on “Potion” no man can say but it awakens a disco soft drink whose fizz disappeared long ago.
[4]