Guess which one is which and you’ll win this jar full of a thousand marbles…
[Video][Website]
[4.67]
Iain Mew: At this point Calvin Harris’ trademark drop with the beats speeding up and up and up is like an over-elaborate video game attack animation. It was impressive the first time but now that it’s obvious what’s going to happen it just breaks any sense of fluidity or suspense, and it would be better if it was possible to just skip it and have its effect happen instantly. That’s actually the only thing bringing this song down, though, which has a couple of great hooks and actually gives them space to work, as well as being a better showcase for Example’s vocals than some of his own singles. I would suggest that its improvement over most things Harris has produced lately is the effect of collaborating with someone with a bit more musical personality than Cheryl Cole, but that didn’t work out with Kelis or Ne-Yo or Scissor Sisters. Maybe it’s just that Example’s morning after melancholy is such a better fit to Harris’ instincts that he doesn’t feel the need to stomp the life out of it so much.
[7]
Josh Langhoff: Zach Galifianakis peers through the bars of a Thai prison cell as Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms hail a cab for the airport, hollering their empty promises into the air. When they disappear into the sunrise, Galifianakis’s face falls and we see that he will die here.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: Once you accept that every Calvin Harris song is going to follow the same structure like a late-90s developer in the Phoenix suburbs, you can give yourself over to the minor pleasures the separates each from the other: in this case, Example’s slightly world-weary voice and the dusty, spare downtime, the Harrisian version of Morricone.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: Say what you want about Calvin Harris’ lunkheaded bangers, but I’d much rather spend time with those than watch Example and him write meandering letters over production that refuses to even think about going over the top.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Numbing guitar timbre, pulpy synth decay, a listless percussive gallop. I’m getting this awful image of Midnight Oil doing dance-pop.
[3]
Alfred Soto: The plucked guitar and the warmth of Example evokes early eighties R&B hits by George Benson… but I wrote this knowing the dreck I’d have to endure forty seconds later.
[4]
Michaela Drapes: This lands smack in the middle of the scale for its pleasing mix of blatant self-plagiarism from Calvin Harris tempered with the incongruous “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” quotation. I’m a bit fond of Example’s caramel-smooth vocals, too — especially when he veers into full-throated Elton John-ishness.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Let’s gut it. No, not Calvin Harris, his song: everything is dance dross but the guttural synths and the baritone Example’s voice wants to be. The synths are probably Harris’s last groans, but Example could still be fantastic. He needs to get better producers approximately one single ago.
[5]
Will Adams: There is a clear difference between exploring a style and marching in place, and Calvin Harris has unfortunately been drifting towards the latter for a while now. The unnecessary pitch-climbing buildup has never been so tiresome, his choice 8-bit lead synth has never sounded so deflated, and even the guitars, which would have added interest six months ago, feel rote. Quite sad that I’ve been reduced to giving charitable “but it’s dancey!” points to a producer who has some fantastic stuff on his CV. It’s Guetta all over again.
[4]