Tyla ft. Zara Larsson – She Did It Again

Played with our hearts, got lost in the game, you know the rest…

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[4.75]Al Varela: I haven’t been encouraged by the pop star-ificiation of Tyla. The more she flirts with R&B and pop the more anonymous she becomes. This is a pretty apt example, trading the amapiano for a really basic, inflexible pop R&B groove that gives the illusion of an Afrobeats-inspired groove, but doesn’t have the texture or effortlessness that came from Tyla’s brightest moments from her debut. Zara Larsson is also a horrible fit for this song. She’s just as anonymous but sounds significantly worse.
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Claire Davidson: Tyla and Zara Larsson are both talented vocalists in their own right, but their strengths are vastly different: where Tyla shines on muted, low-key songs that lend her subtle charisma a winking charm, Larsson is much more flamboyant, coming into her own on songs that allow her soaring enthusiasm to engulf everything in its path. “She Did It Again” tries to find a middle ground, which ends up doing neither artist any favors, constructing its gentrified Afrobeat groove out of little more than whooshing effects, glitching noises, steel drum-like keys, and some of the grainiest, most lethargic snares I’ve ever heard. Tyla practically sounds winded attempting to muster the energy that could match the song’s extroverted flash, and Larsson, forced to underplay on her verse, is left marooned by rap lyrics that barely even retain a coherent meter. The song, then, becomes an overt failure, a supposedly lateral move for both artists that ends up flattering no one.
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Alfred Soto: In which the amapiano expert vocalizes as if Rihanna remained an example. Just to complete the makeover: the squeak and electrofarts that infected pop a decade ago.
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Kayla Beardslee: This instrumental is misogynistic (it’s bad).
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Charli Jae Brister:  I like it, even if it’s not particularly distinctive. Feel like I’ve heard this song dozens of times before — probably because I’m pushing 40. The precise construction of the melody, the off-beat snare patterns, synths I’d call “burbling”: a solid template for a song! But not one that I’ll actually remember 30 minutes after listening. (Also, I did not know this song had TWO vocalists until I typed this sentence, five days after writing my initial blurb.)
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Nortey Dowuona: Zara is okay. Sammy Soso, Mocha Bands, Ari PenSmith, and Believve, though? You did not do it again. Very disappointed.
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Harlan Talib Ockey: This has a lot of ingredients I enjoy. I love the distorted bass flourishes in the production. The vocal harmonies in the second verse are somehow both airy and delightfully crunchy. The “deep down you want me” and “uh-oh, uh-oh” hooks remind me of Rihanna, which is guaranteed to score points with me. The lyrics are weighing the song down, though. Sometimes they’re painfully literal (“this a dangerous game for you / this is all child’s play to me”), sometimes they’re semantically confusing (“even when you feel like you can” is left adrift before reaching the phrase’s actual subject), sometimes they’re redundant (yes, we know the title sounds like the Britney song). However! I would happily listen to Tyla and Zara Larsson sing pretty much any string of words, so “She Did It Again” still ends up well above average.
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Ian Mathers: On the one hand, I have yet to hear Larsson actually add anything to a song when she guests, but at least here, unlike “Stateside,” she’s not actively dragging anything down. Possibly because she sounds more like Tyla than the latter, so I don’t miss the main performer as much. As it is, this is solid, but she’s still hoping to strike “Water” twice.
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