Bloody commoners, always taking your money…
[Video][Website]
[5.92]
Ian Mathers: So this is one of those newfangled Japanese virtual pop stars, only they fed a bunch of M.I.A. into the hopper, right? There’s a glitch, though: I don’t think a human would tell us to “throw your wallets in the sky,” and these things are supposed to be good at verisimilitude.
[4]
Michelle Myers: This is the sound of 2011: moombahton, Kate Middleton, swag, simple chord progressions, bored female robot vocals, and throwing your wallet in the sky.
[10]
Edward Okulicz: For four minutes, I’m in the same hell spawned by every other blog-sanctioned evanescent micro-genre, but the last two minutes’ spazz-out transcends the usual Moombahton slowed-down-house fare by being brighter and funkier. If you watch the YouTube teaser video you’ll identify it immediately as having vague aspirations towards being a Macarena for boring hipsters, a fairly worthy aim the song itself isn’t good enough to fulfil. The album’s called Colours but Nadia Oh doesn’t have a single one in her voice here.
[3]
Hazel Robinson: The robots have come to party. And with such warmth! We weren’t sure about inviting them but now we must have them round again.
[8]
Chuck Eddy: I’m not sure whether adding the robotic syllable “ton” to every other word is supposed to be clever, or an alternative to adding “izzle,” or some new species of Pig Latin or Double Dutch. All I know is, on paper, it should be totally annoying; same with assuming I know or care who this “Kate Middleton” person is — in your actual lyrics no less. (Oh wait, just saw her name atop Yahoo’s “Trending Now” list, clicked, and remembered she had that famous wedding, duh. As with all right-thinking Americans, royalty means nothing to me.) Anyway, somehow, in practice, it adds up to a trancey repetition that lures me in.
[7]
Sally O’Rourke: “Taking Over the Dancefloor” is all about shine, from the prismatic synths and the metallic sheen of Nadia Oh’s robo-voice, to the references to top shelf tequila and the newly-minted Duchess of Cambridge. Slicing through this glossy exterior are Nadia’s taunting threats to “take your money,” suggesting that the dancefloor’s not the only thing in her sights. If Kate Middleton’s ascendance into the royal family struck one small blow against the ossified gentility, then Nadia is declaring full-on class warfare, armed with a smirk and a broken bottle of Patrón.
[9]
Jer Fairall: If this is what Kate Middleton is jamming to, I have serious concerns about the future of the royal bloodline.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: As necessary as a Google Reader pic-spam of Pippa Middleton’s new sandals, as SEO-sad as a post full of repeated KATE MIDDLETON SWAG KATE MIDDLETON SWAG, as inept as a Kreayshawn song performed by actual six-year-olds on their old toddler keytars, and more inexplicably liked than anything atop the Hype Machine this decade. Who comes up with this shit? Why do we humor them?
[1]
Zach Lyon: The first fifteen-or-so times I listened to this, I didn’t know why. One of those things where you really, really don’t like, or at least don’t “get,” something, but you can’t keep yourself from going back. I’m saying that as a plea to those who don’t yet love this: listen to it sixteen times. The six minute cut has become six of my favorite minutes of 2011; it’s stuffed with sonic discovery in a year that’s been wholly lacking in new sounds. It’s really the stretch from 0:37 to 0:55 that sells it to me every time — the song might start playing in the background of things, and when that squeal starts, I have to stop what I’m doing and raise the volume… and raise it again… and again… and again until it hurts… and is that really as high as it goes?… and then BLAAAAHD;JGBSAD;KJGSAD;KJG NAKED DANCING FOR FIVE MINUTES. It never lets down from that moment, a bright swirl of intrusive squeals and snares, Nadia’s robot impressions that don’t sound the least bit threatening, and only the massivest synths, all at a slow enough tempo to massage/pound your earballs with sparkling noise. And of course, the key word isn’t “MIDDLE-TON,” but “MOOMBAH-TON,” a trend I still haven’t immersed myself in beyond this track, perhaps because so much of it still only exists in remix form, while “Taking Over the Dancefloor” was actually written and created as a song within the microgenre. And tremendous respect for Nadia Oh for giving me the only delivery of the word “swag” thus far that hasn’t made me groan.
[10]
Jonathan Bradley: There’s nothing swag about Kate Middleton, a willing participant in a grossly archaic system of privilege and oppression, but I’m willing to read the “We gon’ take your money” chant as ironic republican protest. In reality, it’s best understood as nonsensical riffing on the latest hot dance genre-du-jour, mad-libbing up a slew of imagined styles for fictional trend pieces. “Kate Middletón is a genre derived from swaggingtón and born at a house party in a Berkshire basement…” Whatever you classify it as, the slow skank of “Taking Over the Dancefloor” fits well with pinging synths, stadium riffs, and the occasional whistle — for two-and-a-half minutes. At six, it is a chore. As a transition in a DJ set, it could be marvellous.
[5]
Iain Mew: The video version of this is 1:28 and actually the perfect length for it. It allows its very few ideas enough room to breathe, gives a chance to appreciate its novel approach to the concepts of language and rhyme and doesn’t outstay its welcome. The full 6:10 with barely an extra bit of synth mashing to show for it is a chore.
[3]
Michaela Drapes: Please, please, please do not disabuse me of the notion that this song was penned specifically to be my personal summer jam. It’s rare I miss having a car, but; I dream of subjecting acres of gridlock to this track’s shattering wonderfulness, on repeat.
[8]
Jonathan Bogart: Leave it to British dance geeks to take all the fun out of reggaetón.
[6]