So a guy walks into a bar that’s playing this really catchy song…
[Video][Website]
[3.00]
Jonathan Bradley: Apologies in advance for harping on about adwave, but is it any surprise this simulacrum of joy is already soundtracking a Major League Baseball tie-in and the teaser for a Vince Vaughn vehicle? That spry banjo arpeggio just screams don’t worry, spend money. But even if I didn’t care that the tune sounds best in 30 second grabs, what kind of drab existence does Zac Barnett lead that his lifetime zenith amounts to metaphorical blandishments about dancing with monsters and touching clouds? The first time I heard Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen sing about having a good time, I thought their enthusiasm cloying in that special way Adam Young’s efforts always are, but at least those kids sounded like they were having some fun. Now compare that to this chump singing about what he reckons is the best freakin’ day of his life.
[2]
Crystal Leww: Best day of this dude’s life, but if this gets played ad nauseam on the radio, it’s going to be the worst winter of car rides in my life.
[2]
Anthony Easton: With the Vampire Weekend ubiquity, I keep hoping for a hipster revival of Calypso. It never quite takes. The opening bits of this suggest that it might be the next big thing, but the rest of the song betrays this hope. At least you can pogo to it.
[4]
Alfred Soto: This dude sports my least favorite vocal affectation: white boy grit. Throw in an early 2000s NYC guitar line and Lumineering chants and you’ve got a market case study.
[2]
Patrick St. Michel: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain
[1]
Brad Shoup: The nod to “It’s Time” is appreciated, really, but I’m still glad they got another hook. A decent slice of inspiro-rock with a puzzling vocal/vocal-recording combo and the obligatory martial section. A lock for Now! 49.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Three or four competent hooks stretched to homocide-inciting tweephoria. I hate it, but I kind of love it.
[5]
Jer Fairall: The nuance-impaired vocalist uses volume to mask what comes across in his delivery as a curious lack of enthusiasm, and everything else about the track, from the Mumford-y acoustics to the “woah hoah” stadium chants, feels similarly compensatory. Still, the whole thing is processed thickly enough, and the titular sentiment is expressed generically enough, to provide solid trailer fodder for the rest of 2014.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: [Bugs Bunny sawing off America GIF, with Florida replaced by Williamsburg]
[3]
