And then there’s BABAbababababababababababababababaBABA
[Video][Website]
[6.55]
Kat Stevens: Baa-baa ba-ba-ba-ba-BA ba-ba-ba-ba-BA ba-ba-ba-ba-BA-ba. Doo-doo du-du-du-du-DU du-du-du-du-DU du-du-du-du-DU DOO. Neee-neee ni-ni-ni-ni-NI ni-ni-ni-ni-NI ni-ni-ni-ni-NI NEEEEE.
[8]
Jer Fairall: As playful, exuberant and eventually annoying as the playground chants its chorus so aggressively affects.
[6]
Michaelangelo Matos: I have a hard time resisting anything this silly, when it’s done skillfully. There doesn’t seem to be much care in it; the rhythms have many tendrils and are so brute that precision is the least of its evident concerns. Still, it wears.
[6]
Alex Ostroff: The return of Buraka Som Sistema is repetitive and abrasive, but that’s nothing new. The array of guest vocalists and the different ways that BSS played to their strengths was a highlight of Black Diamond, but the endless stream of monosyllabic chanting on “Hangover” might be even better. Lyrics were never the point. The point is massive bass, repetitive ping pong synths and a groove with real physicality. Consider “Hangover” as a warning shot; another album is coming, and you will be held hostage to the beat, so you may as well just surrender now.
[8]
Chuck Eddy: I’m enough of a Teutonophile that I’d probably give at least a conditional thumbs-up to any song that dares rip off George Kranz’s great proto-industrial beat barrage “Trommeltanz (Din Daa Daa)” — Flo Rida, Pitbull feat. Ying Yang Twins, whoever. But these consistently intriguing kuduro Euros go one better by basically just outright covering the German classic, and making it feel African with heaving hard percussion (ba ba BA ba, nyeh nyeh NYEH nyeh, doo doo DOO doo) from machines and mouths alike.
[9]
Anthony Easton: I love this entirely for the BABABABA chorus. The magnificent squelching electronic noise is just a bonus. Add a point for the dog.
[8]
Hazel Robinson: This might well work live, which is what I’ve given it credit for. On record, though, it’s a terrible racket and the lyrical content (or well, lack thereof) bothers me on the level that I suspect it’s roughly how Daily Mail readers imagine all music from outside the UK to sound.
[5]
B Michael Payne: I really hope it’s a language barrier that’s making me at first think the video is a little exploitative and mean. Otherwise, I can kind of see this song being great, but not without problems, when deployed in a social setting.
[5]
Ian Mathers: I feel like I don’t have enough alcohol or sugar or whatever in my system to appreciate this song. Play it for me again under the right circumstances and I may even love it; right now, it feels like that title is a painfully self-fulfilling prophecy.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: I don’t get it. The synesthesia of a hangover is Yuck. What are these guys drinking to make it sound like this?
[6]
Michaela Drapes: Well, I guess this is going to be the track that’s stuck in my head for the next week. And I have no doubt that this track is a completely accurate representation of what it’s like to be afflicted with “dor de cabeça” after partying in Lisbon or Angola or Cape Verde.
[6]