But first, let’s stop in with Jessie Ware and her producer…
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[5.75]
Patrick St. Michel: A neon-lit slider featuring a great vocal hook from Jessie Ware — and nothing much more.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Jessie Ware’s in there, breathing the disco banalities that led many detractors to dismiss her as Sade with a pulse. But the banalities don’t stop with the way Bashmore uses her. There’s a reason why his last name makes sense.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Ah yes, the famous malfunctioning discos of Fire Island.
[5]
Megan Harrington: Though I love Jessie Ware’s voice, the crucial component to “Peppermint” is the syncopated handclaps, the tiny burst of modernity in what is otherwise is purified throwback. The handclaps are your friend and she hands you a white pill and says, “What did they use to call this? X?”
[6]
Anthony Easton: The handclaps are like a reflection into a reflection for eternity, like those heavily ironic dance scenes that lasted too long and made the wrong people pay attention in American Hustle. The dribble toward the end just made everything better.
[8]
Will Adams: It’s not like Jessie Ware can’t be a stellar dance vocalist, and it’s not like Julio Bashmore can’t provide smooth deep house. So why do they both coast so much here?
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: It’s Metaphors That Make Ted Gioia Think I’m A Vapid Idiot time! Bashmore puts together a beat like Nakata, or like repurposing shiny playground equipment, piece by gel-pen-colored piece; Ware’s like a juxtaposed old photo, a couple’s picture from thirty years ago when the place was rusty and intact and no one was around. It’s fascinating what’s at work here: modern-meticulous-sterile turning into retro-effortless-impassioned, then giving that up too.
[7]
Scott Mildenhall: This all seems very knowing, bounding and closer to parody than straight-up homage, but whatever it might be throwing or winking back to, “I’m hot for you!” is brilliant in its simplicity. It’s abstract (because has anyone actually ever said that? Thought it?) and accordingly catchphrase-worthy. When it devolves into an almost panted “hot, hot; hot, hot” it becomes downright silly; fun.
[7]