Somehow this is the seventh Kygo song we’ve covered. How did this happen? When did this happen?
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[4.38]
Iain Mew: Trying to create emotion with a bunch of familiar surging sounds and a handful of words is tough, because repetition can easily make them sound rote. It almost happens here. “Do I still think of you? Only all the time” would be a routine cute twist that would get old. Set up with “I can’t go back to the places we knew ’cause they ask me if I still think about you,” it’s another matter. Maybe the “they” is meant to be the people in those places, but the minimalism makes it read as the landscape turned into a personality of its own, an impression which the cut-up disembodied voices only add to. It’s a way of expressing the power of memory which becomes rather haunting.
[8]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: EDM pop rarely can justify its self-serious endeavors, but “Think About You” manages to succeed because of a single line: “‘Cause they ask me if I still think about you/Only all the time.” The verses provide some banal imagery, but it’s the chorus that transforms it into something evocative. The song embodies how a former lover can repeatedly infiltrate one’s mind, forcing one to become insular and reflective, even if in the most casual manner. The house piano and cheerful beat are imbued with wistfulness — a contrast that transmits a particular yearning for a past, one that’s better appreciated as memories than something acted upon.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: A good Kygo song often depends on its application of austerity, but this deals with it about as well as Nick Clegg. Its most memorable feature is Kygo pressing his buttons down so hard during the chorus that his chimes almost crowd Broussard out. Compare that with the space given to the singers of some of his earlier hits. The first thing that comes to mind about “Stole the Show” is the chorus’ onset, during which Parson James proceeds unimpeded. There’s no such sense of design here. Minimalism is present as an idea — the idea that Kygo’s choice of sounds are of themselves “minimal” — but not a practice. Valerie Broussard is effectively drowning in Volvic.
[4]
Iris Xie: I’ve played this song on repeat three times, and I just can’t seem to remember it even after paying close attention to it. I’m so disconcerted.
[1]
Thomas Inskeep: Oh, look, it’s an EDM/pop single with a semi-anonymous female vocal and a build to its chorus. How original.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: I actually really liked “Remind Me to Forget,” but I can’t get past the though that Kygo’s signature sound is producing his guest vocalists so that they don’t have their signature sound, or any sound, or any personality, or any thing. 81 seconds until the beat arrives properly, that’s just too damn long unless you’ve got real drama and a big hook. This doesn’t.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: “I cut the tree down that we grew — you know, the one we carved our names into?” mixes the literal and metaphorical so awkwardly I have no idea what the timeline here is. (When exactly did they plant this tree? Were they toddlers?) Even if it didn’t, longing for an old fling has never sounded this bereft of lust or regret.
[2]
Will Adams: I can’t help but read this as tribute, however unintentional, to Avicii. Memorialized at the Grammys but curiously absent from last year’s VMAs (just a passing reference by Rita Ora while presenting), Avicii’s legacy was smothered by the easily derided culture of festival bros, molly and excess that would eventually crash in a blazing Fyre. But I still think about him, and the rush I first felt when hearing his remix of “Drowning,” or my wonder at how he made “Hang With Me” even more euphoric. In a landscape of dance music that’s either anodyne trop-house or lethargic pitch-shifted cloppers, “Think About You” recalls a lighter, happier time.
[7]