Organ and striiiiiiiiiiiings…
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[5.11]
Jonathan Bradley: The first and most important thing is that Hilltop Hoods just aren’t that good. They’ve had three platinum albums and they’re still rapping over some dinky beat that sounds as if it were made on Frooty Loops. Note also that this is hip-hop exceptionally devoid of rhythm, arranged so that the drums are perfunctory and the melodic elements — the sample and Sia’s hook — are foregrounded. It’s rap translated into pub rock, where bass and groove don’t matter as much as a shout-a-long tune does. The rhyming is mediocre as well as simplistic, and while a rapper might be able to get away with one of those qualities, he should never risk combining them. Suffa and Pressure suffuse their lyrics with slant rhyme (“day went”/”grey but”) awkward word choice (“that moment of pricelessness”) and barely coherent homilies (“No success without a price that owes a debt.”) Rap is not poetry, but its proponents tend to luxuriate in the sonic and syntactic properties of language; Hilltop Hoods have no feel for the simple power of speech. But even marred by these ever-present handicaps, “I Love It” is particularly bad. It’s a grind song, but true to Australian form, it’s a grind song focused on present arduousness rather than the prospect of success. I love it when American rap engages with working life (G-Side: “I’m a W-2 boy”) but Australian modesty demands that success be subordinate to the nobility of suffering. Hilltop Hoods try hard at rapping, they say, but for them, labor is all about process. They refuse to imagine themselves as exceptional. Despite its growing popularity, Australian hip-hop is a cargo cult, and these guys re-enact the rituals too poorly.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: I know it’s the cultural cringe, but I usually hate Australian hip-hop. I’ve managed to like it with British and American accents, in French, Swedish, Italian, Finnish and Croatian, but never in a voice that even remotely resembles my own. But I like this. It’s hardly a maturation or a result of their productions getting smarter and better; it sounds more like just dumb luck. But I find this sweet and charming, and though inessential, it is so sweetly and charmingly. I’ve never had any problems with the Hilltop Hoods from a technical stand point — if their rhymes and flow are ordinary you can blame their (American) influences more than their accent — I just didn’t like their songs. Before now, they haven’t had a song good enough to showcase their laconic nature and the production is gently rousing but relaxing, like a cold beer (not Fosters) while watching TV on a Saturday morning. In other words, same old, just less noxious. Sia’s chorus and backing vocals are unnecessary but pleasant icing on top.
[7]
Matt Cibula: No idea what they’re banging on about, but they are Australia’s favorite so maybe this is better than I think it is.
[4]
Brad Shoup: String quartets aren’t a great look for pop unless you’re gonna go the “Yesterday” route and showcase the interplay. You could also chop the group up nearly past recognition, but this? This is just cheap melodrama. I feel like I’m a cross-genre hater of hard-knock touring life songs; being a recording artist is always hard work, so if you can’t give me some interesting detail from Hobart, I don’t have sympathy to spare. I do enjoy Sia going all TR.O.Y. on b-boys and bus stops, though.
[3]
Michaela Drapes: Who knew that a wistful paean to success and getting out of your two-bit town from an Australian hip-hop act I’d never heard of would be so affecting? It’s absolutely mystifying to listen to what Aussie diction does to flow; I can’t tell if Suffa and MC Pressure’s near-American (to my ear, anyway) accents are affected or not, but the sentiment of the track is perfectly genuine. Even Sia, whom I’ve always been kind of indifferent about, plays well here, too.
[7]
John Seroff: Persistence pays off, if only in small ways, on the anthemic “I Love It“. Multiple plays finally laid bare the song’s layers and boom-bap drive, transforming music I hate into music I don’t much mind. I have to say that I feel I worked a lot harder than it did; if one play doesn’t do it for you, cut bait.
[5]
Alfred Soto: I don’t know what the hell these earnest Australians are barking, and the mix is rather crowded (organ and strings?), but their flow has force and rhythm.
[6]
Andy Hutchins: This reminds me vaguely of Bubba Sparxxx’ “Deliverance” and Macklemore’s recent output, and also of Mac Miller’s nostalgia-as-cover-for-mediocrity stance; Sia’s hook (“It’s still about hip-hop!”) doesn’t exactly convince me otherwise. But the first gent rapping sounds as good as anyone chewing cement like Trident ever has, and this is actually the sort of instrumental that I am a complete sucker for, and there is a call-out for friggin’ Zurich.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: I love it when violins sound like violins, when you can hear the scrape of string against string instead of a massed sweetness behind glass. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing I love about this.
[5]