We’re working on an answer song about LinkedIn as we speak.
[Video][Website]
[5.50]
Iain Mew: One night during my first visit to Hong Kong I didn’t manage to sleep at all. I was a few days into the trip and off Advil PM but not yet adjusted to the seven hour difference yet, and as the night passed I had a feeling of everything becoming increasingly small and slow in the dark. Reaching for the internet on my phone was both a reminder that the world hadn’t ground to a halt and part of the problem. I went for Champions League live text rather than Instagram, but the smallest moments that bookend “Instagram” get exactly the same experience in their lonely eeriness. Once the song starts to swing and Dean reaches for a broader lament about social media disconnection it’s just one more moan among many, but before that the sense of feeling out of place and reaching for a ghostly half-connection is perfect.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: About as goopy and oily as Dean’s singing, but while “Instagram” features a warped pop take on King Krule style production, the main attraction is still a chore of a vocalist to put up with. All the filters in the world can’t help you at the end of the day from essentially turning in a Maroon 5 single.
[3]
Tim de Reuse: There’s something fitting about setting a tune about information age-induced paranoia against such a lanky, tropical groove. Is it a comment on the pressure to look to all the world like you’ve got a perfect, active life even when you’re staying in bed on your phone until 1:30? That’s the imagery evoked, anyway; Dean’s anxious lyrics settle along gorgeous chromatic lines and a breathy instrumental, sounding equal parts relaxed and exhausted.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Sounding a bit like a Justin Timberlake capable of projecting emotion, Dean laments the discontents of the digital age over guitar and clip-clopping percussion. I can hear “Instagram” sounding raw caught by chance on late night radio.
[6]
Madeleine Lee: Dean is a fine songwriter with a nice voice that he knows how to write for, but there’s an unctuousness about him that keeps me from fully embracing either quality. It makes me want to send ungenerous tweets about how he needs a whole song to say the same thing about nighttime Instagram browsing and emptiness that Beenzino did in 30 seconds, or about how much better the first minute of this song would be if Oh Hyuk were singing it instead.
[6]
Ashley John: Despite the fraught lyrics, Dean makes “Instagram” sound cool and collected. It sounds like walking through a new neighborhood, each verse like walking down a new street just because it catches your eye. It’s lovely, sweet and soft.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: Perfectly conveys the mood of insomnia and idly scrolling through your feed. It just doesn’t do anything else.
[4]
Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: A jazzy chord progression and some tape hiss can work as a pretty good aural equivalent of an Instagram filter, but that does not make the attempt at #relatable any less desperate.
[6]