… and won’t credit vocalists either
[Video][Website]
[5.27]
Scott Mildenhall: Yolanda Quartey goes from the insuperably massive “Turn Back Time” to the still-quite-massive “Won’t Look Back” with some irony, but you can do that when your name’s not on the records. On this occasion that’s extra unbefitting, because rarely is a song so dominated by a voice — it’s all about her delivery. It’s one of a handful of recent hits built on ambition and determination, and she affirms with certainty. You! Me! Dancing! Inhabiting it is easy; trying to hold the “baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack” note less so, but both so much fun.
[8]
David Sheffieck: This gets a +8 for the song itself, the best we’ve heard from Duke Dumont since “Need U (100%),” and a -7 for not crediting Yolanda Quartey’s brilliant vocal, which is the element that actually makes this song a jam. Hey, Duke: when even the Wikipedia page for your single calls you out on not crediting the vocalist, maybe it’s finally time to reconsider perpetuating a decades-long culture of appropriation and exploitation?
[1]
Megan Harrington: The funny thing about Duke’s refusal to credit his vocalists is that while it’s indicative of his belief that they are interchangeable assembly line parts, each subsequent hit single is less distinct from the last. Yolanda Quartey is who gives “Won’t Look Back” resonance, but we’re supposed to regard her as inanimate as Dumont’s synths. I can’t, and I’m bored of pretending otherwise.
[2]
Brad Shoup: Quartey swallows this song whole, getting existentially stunned on the “livin’ it up” bit and fire-eyed on the pre-chorus. If Dumont weren’t plunging the piano, this would seem too small for her. I can’t think of the last time someone sounded this present on a chart cut.
[7]
Anthony Easton: Gorgeous, gospel break, Martha Wash-inspired disco house, with some great swampy bubbling production. Extra points for how they sing “living it up, living it up.”
[8]
Thomas Inskeep: Duke Dumont’s first two singles have hit me as good-not-great, watery versions of the early ’90s house that Disclosure are so aces at updating. This, however, does the sound justice. The formula is seemingly easy, and it’s kind of surprising that no one’s seemed to go to this particular well before: it’s Black Box, the kings of Italo-house. Dumont found a huge-lunged diva in the Martha Wash/Loleatta Holloway mold to take on lead vocal duties, actually quotes the “livin’ it up/livin’ it up” refrain from “Ride on Time,” and most importantly — because anyone can xerox a record — he gets the vibe of Italo house down. “Won’t Look Back” has all of the energy of the best Black Box records, and is thus nearly as perfect as their best singles (which were, simply, perfect).
[9]
Alfred Soto: It keeps threatening to turn into this or maybe this, which would be OK with me, before turning into a retro house number, complete with wobbling 808. I’m pretty sure Martha Wash will return your phone calls.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: The accompaniment Yolanda Quartey is allotted couldn’t sound more antiseptic if it were General MIDI in a funeral office.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: House, I’ll House You. House, I’ll House You. In antiquity, cliché and orthodoxy.
[4]
Luisa Lopez: Big synths for bigger snores.
[3]
Patrick St. Michel: Yolanda Quartey’s vocal is everything about this — this is the first Duke Dumont single where the production is overshadowed by the singing, as this just sounds a bit too nostalgic for its own good. But Quartey more than makes up for it.
[7]