Relatively speaking, that’s a flattering picture.
[Video][Website]
[4.71]
Zach Lyon: Context makes this listenable, even likable, for me at least, though I gave Ed Sheeran a similar bump last time and look what’s come of that guy. Like Example’s last time, this is built around an embarrassing front-and-center lyrical hook, but the verses glide along well enough, with enough genuine concern, regardless of context, to forgive that. And by “verses” I mean “verse,” seeing as he just repeats the same one twice. The first few bars of that, er, verse (“Lost troops, half the class of us”), have a wonderful breathless sensation about them, so I’m glad to hear them twice before it spins off into the boring.
[5]
Brad Shoup: So we’re absolutely certain that Justin Warfield isn’t performing trance-pop? Have we seen these two together? There’s the obligatory dubstep break to let us know that, f’real, this dude is serious, but he’s club serious. A generational statement only a denim company could compose.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: “Stick around like Elastoplast,” Example says, in a song about those fallen to drugs, without thinking that Elastoplasts get taken off and thrown out after a few days. How apposite, really. His last single, which I gave a [10] to and still would, wielded a clumsy phrase to describe that awkward moment of relationship limbo. This one can’t manage the same trick, throwing words that don’t fit around the mildest “drugs are bad, mmm’kay” message imaginable. As for the sugar pill coating the message, you wouldn’t even want to dance to it.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: “If we don’t kill ourselves, we’ll be the leaders of a messed-up generation.” I can’t even tell if this is supposed to be nihilistic, much like the strung-out track and its you-know-damn-well-whatstep breakdown, or the fact that dude preaches in front of his own logo.
[5]
Ian Mathers: The beginning of this, before the rapping? I think that’s what I was hoping the Calvin Harris single would be. The rapping’s not bad either, although I’m not really paying attention to that; I like the chorus, and the bit where the whole thing goes a little slow and stuttery. I normally don’t like pop songs this ravey, but the synth tones he’s using are hitting the pleasure centers in my brain.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: The chorus is good, but I’m a sucker for that sing-the-same-thing-but-lower-in-the-register-to-harmonize-with-yourself trick. Everything else… well, I guess you’ve got to have something in between choruses.
[6]
Michelle Myers: I’ll take my drab UK hip-hop without the Millennial exceptionalism, please. It’s a real shame that so many of my peers have internalized the idea that our generation is significantly more troubled than the young people who came before us.
[3]