Again, not a Heart cover, hold your zeroes.
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[4.83]
Iain Mew: Rather excellent high-octane pop metal. Kellin Quinn’s elastic wail is a gift to the genre, the guitars slam into place for the chorus satisfyingly, and there are some neat touches with electronics and strings. Except, there’s one problem: that “ft. MGK.” His rap, from the technique vacuum to the hideous sentiment of “Leave me, how the fuck you gon’ leave me when I’m the one who’s on TV with these girls screaming?” is astoundingly bad, enough to spoil any song.
[5]
Anthony Easton: Geography is not destiny, but this has the artifice of Orlando and the all-american earnestness of the Midwest. With its expanse and occasional cookie monster groan, it sounds like the grip between the two places, even more so with the super aggro coda near the end.
[4]
Brad Shoup: Machine Gun Kelly’s inclusion earns this song entry onto a list of Pop Star Problems (a rarity for any style of music with “core” in the name, for sure). But his verse is mean and manipulative, a great complement to SWS’s insecure verses. There are too many “whoas” and the band lays off the throttle more than it could’ve, but Kellin Quinn’s vocals slough off gendering. It’s kind of amazing. Were he a woman, this would be a major bummer in the best way, a dilemma as grand as that chorus.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Panting and snarling and drumming, they stir up a dust cloud. Paramore sound like Low in comparison. MGK’s cameo provides reassurance that the singers dated a man as intense.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: This feels really turn-of-the-millennium, in the way that high-tech productions meeting aggressive bands and the union producing loud, fast and thick pop. And “thick” is the best descriptor here, because there’s a lot of little sounds mixed in here, backing vocals and angry squiggles of noise keeping the intensity up where the song occasionally lapses. The yowling doesn’t mean anything but it feels kind of electric. Alas, there’s one sound too many; MGK’s verse is dead air and should have been about half the length. No, make that one eighth.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: Bands like this still exist? I though the kids of today liked their shrill boneheadery delivered through EDM dudes, not half-assed AFI imitators?
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