Summer… jam?
[Video][Website]
[5.10]
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: All I hear is a great hook from Jeremih and some weak verses from two doofy guys.
[4]
Iain Mew: Calling the rapping here harmless is maybe a little generous, but it’s outweighed by the bliss that the piano and Jeremih’s chorus bring. That it sounds like such a warm and happy scene makes the twist of rejection work all the better, though it comes off more funny than sad; he’s enjoying himself too much to let it get to him.
[8]
Brad Shoup: God, so much talking from so many boys, served on a bed of Smeezington Rice-a-Roni. Hell, even Jeremih sounds like Bruno. Obvs, the conceit is about game getting shot down — I’m gonna assume this track was built from “kick it/cricket” outward — so maybe that’s why the production is so mild? Like it’s selling the theme? All I know is, negging is even grosser when you call a woman’s neck her “windpipe.”
[3]
Al Shipley: I know you said “I know that was kinda corny, but,” but being self-aware doesn’t actually make it better. Jeremih has the worst-managed career with the most potential in pop music right now — no third single for the album that had a gigantic second single, a free mixtape when he could’ve and should’ve dropped an album, and doing hooks for jokers like this when actual rap stars are still calling.
[3]
Alfred Soto: We don’t need another “Power Trip.” We don’t need Jeremih mimicking Miguel.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Warm, lush, dopey in love — is this what people hear in “Beautiful”?
[7]
Anthony Easton: Any song that has an “ooooooh baby” this long and follows it up with an “ooooooooooh darling” must be worth something. Add a piano coda and what might be a falsetto, and I am sold.
[8]
Jer Fairall: “Nothin’ on You” with a rapper who may as well be B.o.B but a featured performer who can play sincere with more conviction than Bruno Mars. The bright keyboard hook is similarly delightful, and I’m left wondering what Jeremih might have done with this on his own. He’d have to lose the crickets, though; I don’t like them closing out my Neko Case records, and I don’t like them here.
[6]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: The Chicago-based artist Meaghan Garvey is responsible for one of the most necessary musical edits of the year, where she liberated Future’s triumphant hook from Ace Hood’s otherwise lumbering “Bugatti”. Pray that someone follows her lead and rescues Jeremih from “Crickets’ for the SoundCloud generation to appreciate how great he is here: boyish charm, good humour and unshakeable cool, all delivered over faux-retro breaks with a smooth professionalism. It’s enough to turn me, a “773 Love” denier, round on his talents. His hosts, however? Whoever edits this down to a Jeremih-only edit will have to find a way to slam dunk the verses into the recycle bin like in NBA Jam. It seems about fair.
[4]