Scrubbing up a familiar sample…
[Video]
[6.38]
Claire Davidson: Sadly, not everything PinkPantheress touches turns to gold. “Soap” shouldn’t be a difficult formula to crack, given that its main lyrical purpose is the dismissal of an ex looking to cause trouble with women who have long moved past their relationship. Yet the song is oddly low-key in presentation — one would expect Yves to have a sharper attitude in her delivery, but she instead sings the entirety of the song in a breathy upper register, with a sweetness not remotely suited to the track. The lyrics are surprisingly tough to decipher, not helped by how uncannily the track’s foggy non-sequiturs read on paper; such is the risk of forcing K-pop industry players to write primarily in English. PinkPantheress fares better, though her soft-spoken presence isn’t an ideal fit for this more confrontational material either. Still, I can hear her artistic signature even amidst the track’s many foibles: the glittering synth accents on the chorus, which sound like they were ripped straight from the mid-2000s, are an endearing touch.
[4]
Ian Mathers: I often bounce off K-pop, and I really like Fancy That, so I was kind of bracing myself to spend most of the song waiting for PinkPantheress to show up. But while she’s good here, I actually think the rest of the song is better (and similar enough in sound that I almost missed it when she does start up!). My apologies, Yves, I was unfamiliar with your game.
[8]
Katherine St. Asaph: Imagine telling someone in 2011 that a song this slinky and moody would interpolate Rebecca Black and make total sense for doing so. (And that there would be other Rebecca Black songs to interpolate.)
[7]
Joshua Lu: Nicely performed and impeccably produced, aside from the mistake of leading the song off with a sample of an even better song.
[7]
Nortey Dowuona: Nightfeeling, I am so sorry. I mean, IOAH put this really nice set of chords under the chorus that isn’t stolen from your song, but…
[6]
Julian Axelrod: With all due respect to Yves, I’d rather just hear PinkPantheress on a remix of “Sugar Water Cyanide.” This summer I saw Rebecca Black open for Katy Perry in a giant stadium of people who didn’t know who she was — hasn’t she been through enough?
[5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Sampling Rebecca Black and collaborating with PinkPantheress seems like an obvious attempt to critic-bait this website specifically. Unfortunately, I am not immune to propaganda or to electro-pop this dazzlingly sleek.
[8]
Leah Isobel: This is the most “engineered in a lab to pander to the fanbase” shit I’ve ever heard. But I like Yves, so…
[6]
The last thing I listened to before this song was the Greg Kihn Band’s 1985 album, Citizen Kihn, and this song is exactly like that entire album, just 2020’s electropop instead of 1980’s dude rock. [5]