We can’t really feel its power…
[Video]
[5.50]
Kayla Beardslee: Even though I should expect it by now, I’m constantly surprised at Skrillex’s flexibility. Dubstep, trop-pop, Latin, pure pop, R&B, hip–hop, indie-pop, now this house track: I appreciate producers who can dance between genres and still make quality music. “Midnight Hour” is nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a bouncy little bop, and Ty Dolla $ign’s vocals are smooth and simple in the best way. It does amuse me that even on a track where Ty is the only vocalist, the credits still stack up in a way that makes him look like a feature — however, he does earn his fair share of attention amid Skrillex and Boys Noize’s slick production.
[6]
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: One uncredited feature outshines the three credited ones. There’s a City Girls banger buried beneath somewhere, but the decision to slap their staccato, sharp hook around Ty Dolla $ign’s swampy, sad-boy break-up musings stops the track from reaching its full potential. One more point than this deserves for the shouted outro which was enough to make me chuckle and not regret listening until the end.
[6]
Will Adams: Don’t bore us, get to the ABSOLUTE BANGER part with the City Girls and Cassie samples deliriously bouncing around the percussive thwacks.
[7]
Alex Clifton: It takes a lot to make an EDM song that makes dancing boring, but this gang did it! Congratulations!
[2]
Josh Buck: Hot take: Skrillex is perpetually underrated.
[6]
Jackie Powell: If I were still in college, this would be the song that I’d want to be played at whatever fratty rager that a friend of mine would drag me to. If this song were pulsating through the sticky while equally dark hallways, I’d feel a little bit more at ease. The melody that Ty Dolla $ign is given is just so smooth. The hook goes through a bit of a transformation which provides some imbalance to the track holistically, but what it does evolve into catapults the listener through whatever sweaty dance floor they are in when this cut is all a-blazing. The synths which accompany and later replace the nightclub banger of a beat allow for a build to Boys Noize’s strange vocalizations. (He’s been working with Lady Gaga lately, so maybe I should trust him?) I can only imagine myself listening to this song in a space that I deem uncomfortable from the get-go. But, it did get my foot tapping amid the gibberish.
[6]