Mostly un-wowed…
[Video]
[6.00]
Claire Davidson: “Epa” establishes a long runway for itself. The intro alone is over 45 seconds long, with the voice of an unidentified performer exhorting the listener to maintain the proper degree of reverence for the music to come, which is supposedly transcendent. (“This is church to the beat!”) Yet once the song’s instrumentation finally assembles, the remainder of the track just feels so… small, unable to replicate the irrepressible force of those initial demands. Becky G, aimlessly mewling, seems almost daunted by the shuttering bass beneath her. Her lack of distinctive vocal presence is only worsened by the gratingly elastic backing vocals that surround her as she endlessly repeats the titular word (Spanish for “wow”) on the chorus. The track is barely intimidating enough to earn its capitalized stylization.
[5]
Dave Moore: Becky G keeps chugging along with straight [5]s. I respect the hustle!
[5]
Katherine St. Asaph: Would have been helmed by Jennifer Lopez if it came out at any point in the 2010s, and would have killed.
[7]
Nortey Dowuona: Damn, Deputy. How you keep bringing those smooth ass dembow drums daily?
[9]
Tim de Reuse: The glossiness of the instrumentation in the chorus is pleasantly sunny, but it isn’t quite engaging enough to make me look forward to the return of the two-note, four-letter hook.
[4]
Ian Mathers: You know, I don’t think this is actually about the Environmental Protection Agency.
[6]