Kicking off Reprehensible EDM Day
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[5.89]
Katherine St Asaph: Follows the EDM formula with minor variations for personality (and for eschewing that blasted screwed-down voice), plus the formula of “songs you will object and dance to, in that order.”
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: Example can’t get a hit any more, but Neon Jungle’s photocopy can. Ill-advised rap and timid title delivery notwithstanding, there’ll always be room for something so viscerally — mildly — exciting.
[8]
Abby Waysdorf: I liked “Trouble” more than most — I heard a vulnerability behind the brattiness, and I’m a sucker for chants — but there’s not all that much going on in “Braveheart.” It’s a bunch of things I’ve heard at the club, thrown together without a concern as to whether it was a coherent song: a pile of laser-light synths, uninspired chorus and lyrics about dancing or letting the beat drop. Drinks, please!
[4]
Alfred Soto: Three years too late, three beats too slow.
[3]
Will Adams: The problem with a lot of EDM-pop is that it often doesn’t know how to negotiate between anthemic, hook-filled breakdowns and heavy, amelodic drops (a good example is the last thirty seconds of “Starships”; RedOne smashes both sections together to cacophonous effect). “Braveheart” succeeds because it leans to the other end of that spectrum. The belched bass is menacing, the subtle Autotune more so. It helps that the breakdown is gorgeous and the drop hits heavier than anything on American radio now.
[8]
Jessica Doyle: Asami makes the best damn faces. Asami, asked to describe herself in three words, replies, “Awkward, cool, and… awkward.” Asami is the one counting in Japanese (and kaesu is “bring it back,” I think), which is about the only memorable thing that happens in the whole of “Braveheart.” I’m not knocking the business strategy of a group’s collective Instagram feed being more interesting than its musical output; but it is going to make enjoying them… awkward.
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: Instead of going the predictable live-it-up-tonight route or the everything-made-epic Zeddness of other EDM-infused pop numbers, “Braveheart” opts to open a challenge and embrace the bass-plunge shenanigans most other singles of this sort ignore. Neon Jungle want to see what you got come the drop, except the pivotal moment here is a rumbling beast that thunders onward well past the point it should have stopped. The build-up is predictable, but the rest surprises, from the sliced-up vocals to the whiplash rap interlude.
[8]
Brad Shoup: You know, I think we’re due for a pop song where each member narrates a different night out, Rashomon-style. Thought that’s what this was, coz at one point they’re on their ripped jeans/cigarette shit, then they’re hating hipsters. But nah, it’s just the track feeling conflicted, going from the nonsense grandiosity of the chorus to the will.i.am-gone-gruff brostep touches.
[4]
Megan Harrington: Somewhere beneath London, in an unmarked grave, William Wallace has waited seven centuries for the beat to drop. Worth it! The relay race between vocalists (Asami as live sample, Amira belts and raps, everyone together now for the chorus) is so tightly regulated and meticulously arranged that it’s entirely possible to forget it’s more EDM-pop. The particular element that makes “Braveheart” compelling is Neon Jungle, they’re a punky and democratic unit; no one singer stands on shoulders and the most memorable lyric is the title. In a different group it’s chemicals — with Neon Jungle, it’s gold.
[8]