AI? more like Hey, Why?
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[2.29]
Tim de Reuse: Over-enunciated new wave talk-vocals over a bouncy, Ableton Live Presets-ass beat — it makes sense, at first, as a pastiche. A crisp British accent reciting lines about diamond chains in a way that deliberately avoids any sense of flow — that’s funny, at first, as a set-up to a joke. Unfortunately, the song exhausts its bank of ideas soon after it winds you up to expect that something interesting might happen. The pastiche fails because it’s not that interesting or skilled an imitation of its source material and the joke fails because, well, there’s no punchline.
[4]
Alfred Soto: On first listen I thought of Bill Wyman and Matthew Wilder, journeyman musicians and bizzers whose hits serve as reminders why no one wanted to hear a note from them. I ask any Single Jukeboxer to record their “Rubberz.” I’ll provide the drum machine.
[3]
Dave Moore: Wasn’t sure what to make of this mess: unremarkable words plopped in at random like magazine cut-up poetry done at a corporate retreat, music that feels vaguely familiar but recalls nothing in particular—a forgotten AM radio nonstarter? A flop Broadway play?—and the singer giving it a shrug of a performance, like he doesn’t know or care what’s going on either. Doesn’t qualify as sufficiently weird to get points for novelty, is just light and unpleasant, like a whiff of garbage down the road on a hot summer day. I almost wonder what I’d have scored it if I hadn’t peeked and seen that there’s an A.I. controversy around it. (Probably a safer move to just say it sucks and move on.)
[2]
Al Varela: I don’t subscribe to the speculation that this is an AI-generated song for two reasons: One is that AI artists/producers desperately want to brag to you about how cool their use of AI is, they will rarely make a secret of it. The other that this song is honestly too weird to be AI generated. A random pivot from Fenix Flexin of Shoreline Mafia making an 80s-esque club track with a steady groove and sung with a fluttery autotune, complete with a criminally catchy hook that will never leave your head once it enters it. I’m not really sure what to make of it. It’s more catchy than well crafted. And while Fenix’s singing is a little endearing, he’s not much of a charismatic personality. Part of me has to at least respect the audacity and strangeness even if I think it’s ultimately disposable.
[5]
Taylor Alatorre: The ultimate truther take: he didn’t use AI, but he should have. “I want something that sounds like The Eighties” has long held residence near the absolute bottom of the creative barrel, and at least with Suno handling that request you’re likely getting a product that’s functionally superior to this constipated Joe Jackson impression.
[1]
Nortey Dowuona: I am done with these constant moments of HIP HOP IS THE TRUE GOD whenever any rapper deigns to just not rap. Either rap is the most flexible genre ever created, or it’s not. I’m just more interested in why we were shitting all over Childish Gambino for a whole year just for this bland Phil Collins ripoff to gain the same praise we condemn his fans for. Maybe, just maybe, we can instead just do this for hip hop as it is? Please!!!??
[0]
Hannah Jocelyn: One of the most critically beloved releases of the year is Nirosta Steel’s My Skyscraper, Steel’s 40-years-in-the-making collection of finished songs and half-finished demos. If you know the context, it’s an affecting, vivid time machine to early-1980s New York queer life, from a close collaborator of Arthur Russell. If you don’t know the context, it might sound similar to the post-mk.gee acts crowding music writer’s inboxes. If you don’t want to know the context, and/or you’re Steven Hyden, you think it sounds like this. (Listen to My Skyscraper though, it’s so cool! Read TSJ contributor Joshua Minsoo Kim about it too, while you’re at it.)
[1]