Well, it wins this war…
[Video][Website]
[2.93]
Scott Mildenhall: Yes, but let’s talk about the redeeming features. “I might be a bit tipsy, but that’s OK ’cause you’re with me” is quite a nice line (though nowhere near as nice as some of the ones in “Stars Are Blind”). In an era of less physical product it’ll at least be harder for Banksy to make a “statement” about “things” off the back of it. And out of the three conspirators Hilton comes out and sounds best. But maybe that last one’s not a good thing.
[2]
Anthony Easton: I don’t know why, but the line “Paris, do you speak French?” just made me giggle.
[4]
Jessica Doyle: Who is the “you” being addressed? The chorus — “I’m a little bit tipsy / but that’s okay ’cause you’re with me” — suggests trust, but by the second verse the “you” has become the paparazzi standing in the way of partying rough. (“Partying rough,” for that matter, implies a certain amount of un-fun teeth clenching.) After a while it seems that the “you” is not, actually, the one who’s supposed to have a good time; the primary function of the listener is to stand back and marvel that thirteen years after this Vanity Fair profile ran, Paris Hilton is still as polished and privileged. The atmosphere of bratty hedonism hasn’t changed. The beat hasn’t been updated. The only change is that Lil Wayne is feeling vulnerable and asking about love. “Times like this are timeless,” he suggests. Nice try, Lil Wayne. I appreciate your critique of this forced hedonism. But time does not stop even for Paris Hilton.
[3]
Patrick St. Michel: Mindless party banger or self-aware commentary? A little of both? We live in a world where Farrah Abraham can turn into outsider art, so simply dismissing “Good Time” would be foolish because Paris Hilton might be commenting on the contemporary state of the YOLO pop song. Only she knows! Still, even if this is some sort of wink, it sounds like boring EDM pop with a dash of what-the-heck-happened Lil Wayne. Good for thinkpieces, not for actually listening to.
[3]
Iain Mew: I get so disappointed every time I hear the opening fuzzy synth and turns out not to be “Echelon”. Disappointment isn’t a bad mood to be set up in for the rest of the song, though.
[3]
Mallory O’Donnell: Another hilarious soon-to-be-hit single combining impossibly vapid lyrics (“times like this are timeless”) and a Jersey house beat Pitbull wouldn’t cross the street to drop a deuce on. I guess the relative fame of the performers is the punchline?
[0]
David Turner: Paris, do you speak French? Lil Wayne, can you speak love? What do you consider a “medium butt,” Wayne, if you have a quantity to gauge a “big butt”? The giant robot in this video, are you attempting to court the love of Paris? Birdman, what is your age in human years, and is the grim reaper a chill bro? Sexy dudes in the video, keep being sexy, but please turn down the glistening skin, it’s scary. “Fuck” and “Rock” rhyme? Fuck Rock they do. Are you having a good time? Yes. Yes, you are.
[8]
Crystal Leww: There is some sort of dissertation to be written about this song involving the use of the concept of simulacra. For those who don’t care about cultural criticism on an academic level, the important thing about “Good Time” is that is it completely fucking empty. When Lil Wayne shouts “It’s Paris Hilton, bittttttch!”, it’s completely unearned because there is no such thing as Paris Hilton the pop star. I’ve given Miley Cyrus a hard time for sounding like everyone without establishing who she is at her core, but that’s not Hilton’s problem. Hilton also isn’t a blank slate that embodies a range of universal experiences, like Katy Perry is. Hilton’s problem is that she sounds like literally nothing. The production on this sounds like it was made by a producer who was chasing the trends of 2010, the song’s lyrics sound like words strung together that are all meant to be hooks, the Lil Wayne verse is indescribable because it’s so bizarrely nondescript (he gives up halfway and starts singing words). God, even the VIDEO is just images on images on images. The problem is that everyone in this is so lacking in self awareness that this is not subversive in anyway. They have no idea that they are not real. Nothing is real. Everything is a simulation.
[1]
Alfred Soto: Her 2006 album impressed me enough to dismiss once or all hackneyed thinking like “give a monkey a typewriter and he’ll type Hamlet.” Prefiguring by a couple years how Rihanna would present herself and how Britney would sound, it still holds up. Now she struggles to catch up. How fitting that Wayne wheezes verses that are purest 2007.
[5]
Will Adams: This is three and half minutes of Paris Hilton telling you, “You don’t need this.” “Good Time” exudes laziness from every second, from Paris’s empty delivery of already empty party clichés (“Oh, please, don’t you hate on me, yeah” is the nadir; the scansion is already bizarre, but Paris renders it incomprehensible) to Lil Wayne’s hellish verse (amazingly, this one’s nadir is either “All she know is suck, fuck” or the singing), all of which is girded by a beat Afrojacked from 2011. The songwriting is even lazier; the opening section repeats twice for no reason and without any variation, the verses are hookless and inconsistent, and the post-Weezy bridge just telegraphs defeat. “Good Time” earns its score on the basis of being completely unnecessary, but it especially deserves it for being so upfront about it.
[0]
Brad Shoup: She sounds a lot like Britney, right? If E! did valedictory montages, this would be Paris’s, a sort of “thank God I was famous before memes were more of a thing” deal. I have nothing I want to say about Wayne’s cut-and-paste job.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: As enjoyable as a gel-stained year-old tabloid at the hair salon, and exactly as interesting.
[1]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: For a brief moment near the start of “Good Time”, Hilton’s obvious lack of commitment allows her to float above the palaver. Her noncommittal lilt works when she sings “it’s okay when you’re with me”, the line reading a fascinating space where gentility and nothing meet. She can only balance both for a matter of seconds before plunging deep into nothing, where Cascada knock-offs knock boots with neutered electronic gargles and disengaged phallocentric Wayne gargles. Something neon-glistened shouldn’t sound this funereal but there’s little evidence Hilton can tell the difference.
[1]
Rebecca A. Gowns: I like Paris Hilton. I think she’s pretty savvy with her brand, and she’s not that bad a singer, especially compared to other “media moguls” trying to cash in with a quick single. The production, unfortunately, is “two summers ago” hot; alternately, it could also be a top-of-the-line Ark Music Factory number. Lil Wayne does the track no favors, handing in one of the most tossed-off verses I’ve heard from him yet. However, like “Stars Are Blind” or “Nothing in This World,” it’s totally something that belongs on a scuffed-up mix CD tossed on my car floor. (Scuffed from being played so often; scuffed from being tossed aside and forgotten for months or even years; always pleasant/goofy-fun upon the eventual rediscovery and replay.)
[6]