DJ cliches, play them again.
[Video][Website]
[5.60]
Will Adams: That synth melody in the background – like a music box tune composed for Game Boy – is really pretty, adding sweetness to Becky’s request to the DJ. “Play It Again” has little else to offer, though; the verses couldn’t be less believable, and the highest praise I can give basically amounts to, “at least it’s not Karmin.”
[5]
Alfred Soto: A sucker for songs about the radio, I knew why I disliked this one: she sticks like glue to a perfunctory refrain when she’s better at slavishly imitating Nicki Minaj in “Super Bass” mode.
[4]
Mallory O’Donnell: Dear Becky: Thank you for having the courage to describe us all as “patients” and this song-type procedure as a “vaccination.” You’re quite correct — one stiff injection of this and no one should ever have need of it again.
[1]
Patrick St. Michel: Hiccuping beat, so-so rapping, huh why would this song deserve any att…oh man that chorus!
[8]
Brad Shoup: One Cher Lloyd feature and she’s talking like she’s got Ariana Grande’s street team. She hedges her bets with a yearning bridge, a radio shoutout and some Nicki jocking (better than the alternatives, I guess). But beyond that, the producers did not give a shit.
[3]
Jonathan Bogart: Not sure I trust myself not to be intemperate here. Just: the fact that a sixteen-year-old Chicana — and specifically a sixteen-year-old Chicana from the L.A. suburbs, who refuses to whitewash herself or her surroundings — is making music at this level means a lot to me for reasons I don’t even quite fully understand.
[9]
Rebecca A. Gowns: Nicki Minaj has many haters, many of them still proclaiming that she’s nothing but a copycat. While she may have started her music career with mimicking the poses and styles of other lady rappers — and that’s fair enough, since that’s how most artists get their start — look at her now. She’s a bonafide force of her own. She’s opened the doors for all ladies to get in on this game, and they’re popping up everywhere. (Rap like a monster; sing bubblegum pop like a cyborg princess; do both on the same track. Put on outfits and silly voices; peek out and wink and remind us you’re still Onika; snarl, “or am I?”) Becky G is one of many flowers growing in this garden, and I’m thrilled. She’s young, she’s incorporating a lot of pieces of a lot of other acts, but I’ll bet she has a lot more in her. This song is fun, and yes, I will be playing it again. [Sidenote: this music video appears to me as sort of an antithesis to Gwen Stefani’s “Luxurious”; instead of a blonde popstar acting the part, she is the part, so she can fully partake in the pop, with no pretense; a Dirty Margarita in a Santa Monica loft vs. licking Lucas candies before going clubbing.]
[8]
Crystal Leww: There is some sort of weird disconnect in tone between the verses and the chorus and bridge, so the this comes out sounding more cartoonish than I’d have hoped. Think Cher Lloyd or Ke$ha rather than Nicki Minaj. (Hell, she even says “animal” at a certain point in a pitch-perfect K$.) That’s fine; the former are good at the snotty faux-rap thing, but Becky G gets lost under the shuffle under this Dr. Luke production. She’s already proven to us that she has a personality of her own and the ability to let rap comprise a meaningful part of her repertoire rather than just be a sideshow. I just wish that her “breakout” single didn’t sound like every other Dr. Luke joint.
[5]
Alex Ostroff: The transition between verses and chorus are awkward at times, but on “Play It Again” (and the delightful “Becky from the Block“) Becky finally demonstrates charm similar to that of occasional collaborator Cher Lloyd, which neither of them displayed on their actual collaboration. Even over a Dr. Luke track, she remains rooted in geography, culture, family and place – the consistent centring of her family and neighbourhood in her videos thus far is almost as endearing as her music itself. A potential pop-rap force for good, especially if she can improve her punchlines and find a better ad-lib than “HA!”.
[7]
Anthony Easton: For something so obsessively about her own ego, you would figure it would fight louder to make a point — in fact, the Don Ho for the 21st century tropical atmospherics in the middle of the track are more interesting than the rest of the worn out vocals. Could the DJ just play that?
[6]