Does this make Ariana Grande the pop game William Jennings Bryan?
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[4.38]
Crystal Leww: Her fellow Nick colleague has drawn accolades for her Mariah Carey influence. Unfortunately, Victoria Justice seems to have drawn from much, much lesser source material: Jessie J. The verses are really good, but everything starts falling apart with “Aaaaaahm GO-OLD!” Everything is horrible by the time the bridge comes around. No one needs vocals sung in the most cartoonish way possible.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: The kind of undistinguished pop song (save for the rap, which we’ll pretend never happened) that’s mostly good for piquing questions in pop nerds. When did “Paper Planes” cross over to become the template for pop swag? Are songwriters ever going to run out of meta (“bet your money on me, I’m gold” is either that or a Rand Paul ad)? Did they all stumble across the friend zone meme at once?
[6]
Alfred Soto: Shiny like freshly designed boilerplate, One Direction’s “Best Song Ever” does the slinky licks, Pro Tooled passion, and euphoria like there’s something to prove; here, Justice can’t inject the humanity of her squeak beyond a couple of bum chorus notes.
[3]
Brad Shoup: The chords, the beat, the cadence… it’s all reminding me of stuff I like: JoJo’s “Baby It’s You,” Cher Lloyd’s “With Ur Love,” Cheryl Cole’s “Under the Sun.” So for me, even a run-of-the-mill version of this piston-filled pop template is worth keeping around.
[6]
Anthony Easton: For someone who was barely alive in the 90s, this sounds like that decade.
[5]
John Seroff: It’s difficult to get excited by Katy Perry’s fait accompli replacement. I like Justice’s voice better than her Nick cohort but the complete lack of creativity on display here by pretty much all involved is a genuine bummer.
[5]
Daisy Le Merrer: I’m sure Cher Lloyd’s guide vocal for the demo was indeed gold. Unfortunately, Victoria Justice isn’t able to pull any of Cher’s vocal tricks. This is painful.
[3]
Ramzi Awn: Imitation Bazooka. Oh God, and she raps. This week was supposed to get better today.
[3]