I guess this is also High Concept Monday…
[Video][Website]
[6.00]
Patrick St. Michel: One of those situations where the music video, a seven-minute thrill of a clip, is far better than the song itself, a three-and-a-half-minute tune that’s good but nothing particularly next-level.
[7]
Madeleine Lee: The video is a 10, note-perfect AU fanfiction that’s just campy enough. The song itself may have benefited from a similarly literal approach; it still swings, but imagine what Primary, the retro-mad, red-hot producer behind the magical “Recipe,” could have done with two Tarantino soundtracks at his disposal.
[7]
Iain Mew: The problem with the video making the influences so explicitly clear is that I would take a full version of their take on “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down”) over the actual song. It wants to do something with those atmospherics but doesn’t have courage to carry through, gradually drowning them out without being bright or exciting enough to make up for it. Miryo sounds great, and the game over synth swirl is neat, at least.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Although the vocals are so-clean-you-can-eat-off-the-tile for my taste, the momentum is inexorable. Uma Thurman, here’s your song.
[6]
Anthony Easton: This stops and starts in interesting ways, opening up slightly and then piling up sounds so quickly as to effectively close the track. It makes it difficult to listen to, and some of those piled up sounds are interesting, especially the electronic piano and some of the processed vocals. I have no idea what it has to do with the titular reference, though.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: This imitation of Tarantino’s imitation Morricone is a few too many steps removed for any meaning beyond the purely sonic to communicate itself.
[6]
Brad Shoup: That (modulated?) whistling hook is wonderful. Combined with these chords, it sounds like something Matt Johnson or Johnny Marr or HAM would have tried. It lilts awhile and gets out. I tend to underrate BEG singles, so we’ll see, but right now I’m mostly feeling the atmosphere.
[6]