well played?
[3.86]
[8]
Dave Moore: Back in 2023 when A.I.-generated music was gaining steam, I thought that a lot of what in previous times was referred to as being written “by committee” would instead be called “written by A.I.,” and sure enough, my first thought listening to this was not “I wonder who made this crass, cheap, cynical, dumb, and artless thing,” but “I wonder if this is A.I.” Which is a shame, because crass, cheap, cynical, dumb, and artless doesn’t necessarily predict whether or not I’ll like the song.
[1]
Al Varela: This is a little bit obnoxious, but it’s also my kind of obnoxious. Kaien and Sugar have a fun little back and forth over M.Sasuke’s bouncy, plonky beat that shuffles and grooves through several different drum patterns. Somehow the trap snares and rap bridge don’t sound out of place because there’s already enough bounce to the song and the two vocalists have their tongues firmly in their cheeks. They know this is a little bit embarrassing of a song, but they’re having a lot of fun with it, and so am I.
[8]
Lichelle: This track should be played at full volume as instant punishment for any sour survivor who types “GGEZ” or any of its variants in the post-game Dead by Daylight chat in a last-ditch effort to regain virtual dignity and self-esteem after getting absolutely whipped by a killer in a match. This was genuinely unpleasant and grating to process, but at least this iteration of the song is human in its folly.
[1]
Nortey Dowuona: This is the original version without the added meat puppets. It is the dullest, vapid thing I have ever heard. Thank you, M. Sasuke, thought I was gonna have to honestly critique this, but thank you so much. Now this is getting a 5 for the meat puppets and nothing else.
[5]
Ashton Arbus: Twenty years ago, a chiseled-looking Swede that went by Basshunter released “Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA”, a Eurodance banger about sitting inside and playing Defense of the Ancients. Music inspired by video games has been a thing for about as long as video games existed, but “…DotA” was different in that it was the first song about playing a video game that you could listen to as a normal pop song. If you were a normal person living in Sweden or Denmark you could turn on the radio and hear a song about ganking people and farming creeps while in a Ventrilo chat, sentences that mean nothing to the vast majority of the general public, and you would think nothing of it because the song was propulsive and catchy enough to fit in with all the other Eurodance that was big at the time. I say all this to say that “GGEZ” is not a bad song just because it’s about sitting inside and playing Valorant, and to Kaien Nuen and SUGAR’s credit, they at least made a song more interesting than the AI original. They add a nice 2-step skitter partway through that gives the song an actual musical identity, and they cut most of the particularly cringeworthy gamer aphorisms in the second half. It sounds like a normal song at points. Unfortunately, I just can’t get over those lyrics. “Not an NPC”? “I be Lelouch, you be C.C.”? “Ferking easy”? Horrible. Irredeemable. The discord e-couple energy radiating off of them is too much to bear. A valiant effort by all involved, but you can’t get me to give more than an incredibly lukewarm defense of this thing. At least they’re not singing about League of Legends, I guess.
[3]
David Allun Jones: Honestly y’all, my score has veered wildly from one direction to the other and back again since this came up for review. I’m supposed to viscerally hate this K-pop + 2-step + She’kspere + Disney Channel gamer-themed sugar cube for, if not that combination of words alone, its A.I.-generated origins especially. It’s “now sung by real human beings!!!”, says the updated ad marketing, though recently fussed-over entries like “I Run”, “Rubberz” and whatever that Tyga alter-ego thing was leave me wondering if that one (while important) change is enough considering the stinky future implications of where it all could lead. Complicating things further, throw in the varyingly resolved real-vs.-fake doomsday debates in decades past over things like drum machines, sampling, GarageBand, Auto-Tune, Milli Vanilli and 2Pac hologram avatars and my feelings on the matter devolve into a pile of applesauce. On the other other hand, hear me out though!! If our pathway to being under the dystopian regime of super-charged updates to future overlords Siri and Alexa (and Vice-Overlord Musk) is as increasingly inevitable as the news is saying anyway, is it that harmful that I goofily break out into a fierce pop-lock eight-count every time I hear this (oh-so-toxic) meet-cute bleep-bloop? On second thought, maybe don’t answer that. Sigh, my Gemini indecisiveness is showing. Whatever. It’ll no doubt change every hour from now until the end of time, but right this very instant, my score is a:
[4]
Jel Bugle: No, it seems all a bit off.
[2]
Thomas Ruan: I turn 32 today and I can’t help but think about my reaction to “GGEZ” in that context. Getting older is weird! When I was younger, I assumed growing up would mean becoming more confident and focused in my taste in music (or maybe even anything). I have felt that way, but I’ve also become more broad-minded in my appreciation of different styles, more willing to judge music on its own terms, and a bit skeptical of the voice that tells me I’m too old for this. I have to stay true to my initial reaction to “GGEZ”: I really enjoy this little morsel of brainrot! It sounds charming with a snappy rhythm and feels perfectly paced. And it’s really catchy, that helps a lot.
[8]
Callie Petch: *Steve Buscemi in 30 Rock “how do you do, fellow kids?”.gif*
[3]
Joshua Lu: The AI origins of “GGEZ” aren’t particularly novel — some loser makes an AI song, real people actually record it — but they provide a clear blueprint for what works and doesn’t work with the song. The former: the human components, like in the updated lyrics that flesh out the love song component, and the cerebral decision to say “furkin’ easy”. The latter: that Saja Boys-aping instrumental, and those completely pointless bridges that are essentially AI artifacts in sound form. This statement isn’t some righteous statement on the necessity of humanity in art; it’s a straightforward observation on how human art is still just better. I’m hesitant to call “GGEZ” anything resembling “good”, and Valorant will remain uninstalled on my computer, but I am glad for the reminder that sometimes gaming culture can be harmless cringe instead of weird alt-right bullshit.
[4]
James M Errington: I immediately knew this was AI music without having to look it up, all a load of empty signifiers with nothing behind, soulless and rancid to the core. The point of art is to connect and translate our feelings and experiences to each-other, when there is no feeling or experience then what are we left with? The two humans involved here should really know better.
[0]
Charlotte Gaze: About time we get some pop music about relatable topics!
[6]
Anna Katrina Lockwood: You people expect me to believe God is in THIS machine?!
[1]