Aww, he seems lost…
[Video][Website]
[5.33]
Crystal Leww: If this is the alternative to Sam Smith in UK R&B, I am so down.
[7]
Micha Cavaseno: A fairly reasonable pop-house/R&B hybrid with a great ’emotional piano & breakbeat breakdown’ that seems ready to storm the clubs across the world. It’s just that Compass’ voice seems somewhere lodged in the back of his throat, like he’s eternally choking on post-nasal drip. Fitting, when you consider how sappy his shit is. It aspires to walk a bridge between early Craig David and Disclosure/”Down On Your Luck” territories, while still clearly keeping one eye on the charts.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Maroon 5 with more gauze, better beats and better PR.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Kudos for the chorus with the boom boom pah and house piano and the subsequent mild 808 breakdown. The rest defines mild if not lame. “Gotta get back one of those Kodaks/cuz I picture you in my life”? Why not “Gotta get one of those Walkmans/cuz I hear you in my head”?
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: I keep playing this hoping one more go will reveal something to love or hate about it — I tried to force myself to dislike the “boom bat” scat chorus, but even that just hangs there. There is nothing here to get emotional at whatever, just a pleasant enough song and nothing more.
[5]
Scott Mildenhall: Onomatopoeia is a risky game to play. “Boom Clap”, on the one hand, has punch — clear meaning, feeling and expression. There, it’s deployed with great success. In contrast, the dangers of failure are highlighted by how the most memorable part of “Girlfriends” is the sound of beatboxing transcribed and then rearticulated by an unwitting uncle. His kids are there. He mumbles something about “Kodaks.” He’s showing them up. They skulk off and put actual Disclosure on in the next room.
[5]
Megan Harrington: He’s gonna beatbox the pussy up.
[8]
Will Adams: Some truly lovely elements here — the slowed down D&B break, the delicate scats over deep house, Joel Compass’ modest performance — but it’s too short, too scattered in its form to realize any of them.
[7]
Brad Shoup: Ditzy like prime LFO, but smart enough to at least sketch out whatever he thinks the female gaze is. This sort of breezy dancepop pastiche is a point in the major labels’ favor; it fills a need I always forget I have, which is to hear a new version of this song every year.
[5]