We covered it before 2012, so that’s good enough now, isn’t it?
[Video]
[4.33]
Doug Robertson: This is the “Official Olympic Torch Song” — they must be very proud to have been chosen for such an “honour” — and, much like the Olympics themselves, this collaboration is an unnecessary and not particularly desired event which, nonetheless, provides a vaguely enjoyable distraction and isn’t entirely a disaster. It’s more about Bromfield, as Stryder slightly fumbles the baton in this relay and fails to make much of an impact, but overall it’s good enough. Even if in terms of excitement it’s more speed walking than the 100m sprint.
[6]
Zach Lyon: Dionne Bromfield is basically what would happen if Kanye time-traveled and decided to sample Amy Winehouse’s voice for College Dropout. “Spinnin’ for 2012” is what happens when the Olympic Committee needs to find the absolute least offensive song in the English language. “The world keeps spinnin’/Changing the lives of people in it/Nobody knows where it will take us/But we hope it gets better/Better/Better.” Dionne is fifteen years old; this was apparently written by someone half her age.
[3]
Iain Mew: Between the recent riots and the death of Dionne’s godmother Amy Winehouse, this rather early London 2012 Olympics song with all of its fire imagery and its message that “it gets better” (yes, it’s finally the song which just flat out says it!) has picked up all kinds of unintentional poignant baggage in the short time since it was recorded. The song remains a bit of an over-written mess but it puts Dionne’s impressive voice to better use than anything else to date, and it has a powerful enough motivational heft to it (without lapsing into sentimentality) that it’s hard not to warm to it in the context.
[6]
Brad Shoup: It’s not Tinchy’s fault he’s got one of the more cluttered musician pages on Wikipedia. It’s not Dionne’s fault that she hasn’t the maturity to properly project, or to inject a personal sensibility into a bland melodic throughline. It’s not either artist’s fault they’ve been saddled with pansy-ass sentiment and bromides about hanging together and music’s power to rejoin Pangaea. It is the producer’s fault that Tinchy got away with mentioning fighting and soldiers in a song made for the fucking Olympics.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Within this fleshless skeleton lies a hint of Adele-esque soul waving — the gross ostentatious kind. Bromfield, however, does her best to sound as blank as possible. I suppose this is the way to record a would-be anthem.
[3]
Alex Ostroff: Honestly, if you’re as surprised as Dionne Bromfield is at the beginning of this song that the world is spinning, you’ve probably had a few too many. The music box opening bit seems oddly tacked-on, but the rest of this is a perfectly competent slice of soul-pop. The beefed-up beat make “Spinnin'” radio-ready, and the cello accents ensure that it’s classy enough to serve as the Olympic Torch theme. Tinchy’s verse is a triumph of sorts, but his vitality sounds even more neutered than usual, of late; the voices once confined to pirate radio have conquered the mainstream, but in doing so have probably been absorbed whole. For a vaguely catchy, vaguely inspirational Torch song, you could do a lot worse.
[6]