At worst, he feels sad for a whi-i-ile…
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[5.83]
Martin Skidmore: His home territory is gospel, but this sounds rather like contemporaryish R&B, with sweet female backing vocals taking most of the tune, Kirk interjecting over the top in forceful ways. It reminds me a bit of “Hard Knock Life” without the kids. I generally find gospel lyrics rather a turn off, but the warm, summery happiness of this is infectious and hard to resist.
[8]
Jer Fairall: Essentially the Christian “Fuck You,” from the retro-Motown ebullience to the use of recession-era topicality (vague in Cee-Lo’s case, blatantly stated in Kirk’s) as a target for its age-old titular sentiment. Franklin’s statement is far less interesting in every possible way, but I’m enough of a sucker for this kind of sunny soul pastiche to almost ignore the fact that I’m basically being advised to grin like an idiot in the face of all my troubles.
[6]
Anthony Easton: God might be working, but if you spend any time with the bible, that working should send you into paroxysms of terror, sadness, and existential fear. As much I appreciate the hard-won optimism, I am not convinced of the theological accuracy of its presentation. This may be Eurocentric of me though.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Of course he’s smiling — God’s people did three-quarters of the work singing the damn thing.
[2]
Chuck Eddy: Wait, he dedicates the song to recession, depression, and unemployment? Aren’t you supposed to dedicate songs (books, whatever) to things or people you like? Though I suppose he just means he’s smiling in the face of said negative economic indicators. And I do appreciate the sentiment, and of course understand that one of gospel music’s (and religion’s) primary purposes is to lift hopes and spirits through hard times. I’ve been playing lots of early Andrae Crouch & the Disciples from the ’70s lately; that dude was great at it. But this song’s just too don’t-worry-be-happy to fully embrace. For most of it, Kirk sounds more like a hypeman than like somebody testifying from the pulpit. A bit too much hubris for his own good. Still, once he starts calling out to cities in trouble, he gets the job done.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: As always, Christian music is about ten years behind real music; this has the strut and stadium wave of Jay-Z’s triumphant turn-of-the-century singles — which was when Franklin was making great new jack swing-inflected gospel. Does it matter that you’re behind if you take the time to get it right?
[6]