Do you want to hear more Sufi Tukker? (yas) What is the reception of this song? (okay)
[Video]
[5.83]
David Moore: Not sure why the visual vibe is going for Toy-Box since this is on the polar opposite of the millennial electropop spectrum, but early 2001 it is, and she nails it — smooth, earnest, dumb, perfect.
[8]
Tobi Tella: “Best Friend” was one of my favorite weirdo pop songs of last year, so this duo going with something a little more conventional makes me kinda sad. It’s still not normal pop radio fare, with a melodramatic spoken word intro and a europop vibe, but for all the posturing of being alternative, it blends in seamlessly with the generic.
[5]
Alfred Soto: The duo have excelled at lightly kinetic dance track with Europop sensibilities, or maybe this is a fancy way of explaining how the generic “haunting” vocal works.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: I was a little harsh on Sofi Tukker the last time around, I think; “Fantasy” is nostalgic for a number of songs untouched by The Algorithms (in the popular-press sense, i.e., synonymous with The Normies). Specifically, I hear Kara DioGuardi in Platinum Weird, and the plaintive, fluting vocal is very Sara Lumholdt in A*Teens. There’s more conventional stuff here as well: sad Eurodance, and the Poppy/Maty Noyes set of pop that’s sorta-subversive, the kind that suspends in breathy pop air lyrics like “I’ve never seen someone like you, the one I made you into” or “don’t come to life, don’t come alive.” But crucially, “Fantasy” doesn’t break character or spoil the trance kayfabe. It’s all yearning, no wink.
[7]
Will Adams: With each year following the decline of EDM’s rule, I’ve been holding the (perhaps naïve) hope that eventually we’ll reach a place where we’re not holding trance at arm’s length. Sofi Tukker seem primed to do just that, seeing as they exist more in the realm of flash-in-the-pan ’00s Euro duos like DJ Encore & Engelina or even Toy-Box. “Fantasy” lacks the Brazilian influence that made their debut Treehouse so unique, but in return is a wistful trance-pop gem that finds power in its lightness.
[8]
Stephen Eisermann: The beat is a little too Yamaha preset and the vocal production sounds a bit too Soundcloud for me to really take this seriously. The pre-chorus is nice, though, so I guess more of that next time and less of… everything else.
[2]