Officially better now (just)…
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Jonathan Bradley: Fuckboys have feelings too. So many feelings.
[3]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: “There’s no way I can save you/’Cause I need to be saved too/I’m no good at goodbyes” is a good line, but also a good signpost for what this song’s trying to capture. More than any of Post Malone’s previous singles, “Goodbyes” goes down real smooth. And for a song that seems to be little more than overwrought wailing, the sense that everything here feels diluted and simplistic ends up being a good thing. Post’s gritty vibrato feels a bit too natural here — it’s considerably less noteworthy than before — and Thugger’s performance is one of his safest to date. But all this embodies that purgatorial emptiness of struggling to end a toxic relationship; when you feel paralyzed by life-altering decisions, it’s nice to have a song that you can put on repeat that doesn’t ask much of you beyond agreement with somber atmospherics.
[6]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: “Goodbyes” is just “Better Now” with an added Young Thug texture pack, but the additional weirdness that Thugger provides does just enough to make the sequel surpass the original. Yet Young Thug’s presence here also reveals the flaws in the sensitive Post Malone project: Thugger’s strung out, alien-like tones communicate the anguish of “Goodbyes” far more effectively than Post Malone’s inert body.
[5]
Ryo Miyauchi: Young Thug approaches this track so disappointingly conservatively, yet it’s tough to blame him, as he’s forced to dumb it down to meet halfway with his collaborator’s conventional sense of melody. He’s been straightening out his flows lately to the point his voice no longer has any of the slipperiness that once made him so exciting to hear, and he continues to try and get by only on the strength of Auto-Tune in “Goodbyes.”
[4]
Alfred Soto: The Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the teen melancholia set shows a temper, which might get him a few million more streams. Fortunately, Young Thug sits on the edge of that purgatorial bed wheezing like an incubus.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: One surprise of 2018 was pilot-dropper Joan Armatrading’s repeated rhapsodising about Post Malone. “I think Post Malone is who I like the most at the minute… he writes really good lyrics — they come across as meaningful, they’re saying something. I love his tunes as well, like his voice, he’s got attitude”. It was a surprise, but it makes sense. “Goodbyes” is another melodious purge of heartbreak with a sense of singularity; existing in its own world, like “Better Now”, and like Armatrading’s first hit.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: In many ways the Don Henley to Drakk’s Glenn Frey, Malone here is solipsistic and nostalgic but does his best to make it less about phony poignance and more about indulgence. Ignoring the Young Thug verse (which in 2019 honestly everyone should start doing), this is arguably the best you can get out of Malone as far as his writing goes: a lot of “I’m fucked up but YOU’RE fucked up” displacement and “copelessness”, resulting in avoidance and self-indulgent dejection. It’s a boring return to his best sort of Meat Loaf-meets-Travis Scott wave of malaise that sounds velvety but has the character of stale bread. Still better than anything Juice WRLD’s done in this vein though.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: Is there a major-level pop star right now who seems like a more vile person than this asshole? His “talents” consist of Auto-Tune and vulgarity, and that’s it. As for Young Thug, he should know better.
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Andy Hutchins: Dear God, Post Malone is stealing lyrics and sentiments from Sam Smith now? Are there literally no other people left to rip off than noted ripoff artists? “All I do is complain” is one of Post’s most honest lyrics ever, but there’s nothing else worth a damn here — Thugger is on autopilot in his upper register without a modicum of wit, and we’ve heard Auto-Tuned Post whining about nothing on about eight singles to date. And so of course this dipshit puts the world’s least-earned Kurt Cobain reference in the first line.
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