So she’s had a tad of hype…
[Video][Website]
[6.00]
Katherine St Asaph: Chuck Eddy, forever ago: “As with many of her fellow Mexican art-songstresses teenaged and otherwise (Ely Guerra, Julieta Venegas, Ximena Sarinana), I’ve always appreciated the idea of Natalia Lafourcade more than I appreciate her actual music.” Yeah, sounds about right. Its title is its marketing campaign, although I appreciate the effort to score Imelda May’s “Mayhem” (different country, comparable cross) for handclaps and spindle-pianos.
[7]
Brad Shoup: VH1’s reigning You Oughta Know artist… based on this song, though, she could have won the honor any time between 2005 and the present, as she’s a youthful singer-songwriter with a bouncy, playful pop/rock single containing (putting their words in my mouth here) a “quirky” lyrical outlook. It’s only a matter of time before the inevitable Ben Folds collaboration. Sariñana’s contralto voice is almost willfully unadorned, a little like Zooey Deschanel — in fact, if New Girl is still looking for a theme, they could do little better than this. The fortifying brass could’ve been more exciting if saved for later, but impressions must be made right away, and there are fun percussive elements throughout. Anyway, this song confirms what any adolescent mixmaking hetero boy fears/hopes: she does kind of like you, but her hidden awesomeness will obliterate you if unleashed. Here’s hoping she doesn’t hold back.
[8]
Josh Langhoff: I think she’s not as different as she thinks she is, and her apologies feel far from sincere.
[4]
Jonathan Bogart: Say it with me: Hee-MEN-uh Sa-reen-YA-nuh, and keep saying it till you get it right. She lets down the exoticization fetishists by not sounding particularly Latin, she lets down the hardcore Latin audience by not singing in Spanish forever, she lets down the Anglo pop rubberneckers by not announcing herself with over-the-top production and orgiastic dance beats like Shakira did once upon a time. Clear away the hype, though, and you get a smart, cracking indie-pop song not a million miles away from Peter Bjorn & John with a racing drum line and a cool appraisal of her circumstances. I was worried that I would hear Colbie Caillat; instead I hear Belle & Sebastian, and I’m cool with that.
[7]
Michaela Drapes: I would say that this would be better in Spanish, except I’m not sure that’s true. Though Ms. Sariñana has a pleasant enough voice (somewhere between Regina Spektor and Zooey Deschanel), she — and this song — are not remarkable enough to stand out as anything more than competent copycat indie pop, down to the Feist-y video.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: I’m a sucker for the whistles and pianos of the opening that give the song momentum, but I’m not quite feeling the floaty wordless vocalisations of the break. The arrangement brims with life, and Sariñana drips charm in the verses, but she sounds a little bored in the chorus, as if being from a different world is such a drag to explain to us normals.
[6]
Jer Fairall: Everything on this track, from the peppy horn section on down to smaller touches like the brief whistled bit that is abruptly cut off by a Atari-grade synthesizer squiggle, is working overtime to establish a breezy, sunny mood. Everything, that is, except the flat, affectless singer, such a downer at her own otherwise swingin’ party that I begin to wonder why I even bothered showing up.
[5]