Done and done, is [4] enough?
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[4.00]
Alex Clifton: Oh boy, Liam Payne released another solo song about sex. This one is far less terrible than the monstrosity of “Strip That Down,” mostly because Zedd’s production is better. And I shouldn’t be judging the lyrics of sexy songs, but here I am trying to understand this mess: “sensitive tough, you don’t get enough” (what?), “we’re the sound of lovers blowing crazy in the wind” (what?), and consistent metaphors comparing this girl to an ocean while also saying “I’m up for the climb” which make me question if Liam knows how to swim. What did we do to deserve Liam’s post-1D career? What god did we anger?
[3]
Katie Gill: In one of the saddest interviews I’ve read in a while, Louis Tomlinson describes Liam as “all about getting the crowd going, doing a little bit of dancing.” This kind of fits it? It’s definitely a light club jam, meant to be played at a dance as teenagers awkwardly shuffle along to it. It’s trying to convince you to let loose and dance, even though the instrumentation never really matches what the words are trying to say. But we’ve already got one “Get Low” that’s perfect for getting the crowd going, and this certainly ain’t it.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Serviceable thumper, less so if you’re persuaded by Liam swinging his hips from the bar and winking.
[4]
Claire Biddles: Let’s be real, Liam was always going to be the 1D member with the most embarrassing solo career. He was embarrassing earlier this summer on his debut single “Strip That Down”; he was embarrassing again when he promised to, um, strip if that single went to number one (sadface it didn’t); and what do you know! He’s embarrassing again on “Get Low,” seducing his ladyfriend with almost Alan Partridge-standard lines about “swimming in your ocean” and (I can barely type it out!) “I like the way you touch yourself.” But unlike “Strip it Down,” “Get Low” also has charm, and Liam comes across as a slightly tragic but loveable mate who you still want to hang out with on a group beach holiday, rather than a recently-divorced middle-aged uncle. Zedd brings tropical ~flavour~ to the production, but thankfully has restraint with the steel drum effects, making “Get Low” an old-fashioned summer dance hit rather than gimmicky streaming-bait ephemera.
[8]
Austin Brown: Melodically impeccable, texturally repulsive. That goes for both Liam Payne’s inability to convey anything beyond inoffensiveness and Zedd’s at best serviceable attempt to pivot from maximal electro-house to the chart sound du jour of day-glo dancehall.
[2]
Katherine St Asaph: Zedd offers a meatier version of trop-house about one and a half years after discerning listeners asked for one; all those tracks of Zedd repeating himself were at least repeating himself. Liam’s voice is a particular sort of nasal, as heard through boogers. Somewhere in here is sex, I guess, though Liam’s (songwriters’) repeated “you got the vibe” suggests it’ll happen without his input.
[4]
Scott Mildenhall: You needn’t be Peter Trudgill to note the prevalence of mid-Atlantic accents in British singing voices, and it’s perhaps in part due to that prevalence that they generally go by unnoticed. Push it too far, however, and you stick out like an Oreo in a biscuit tin. Liam Payne can’t be knocked for his commitment — he certainly sounds like he believes himself here — but that is what’s the problem. Robbie Williams he isn’t. Maybe he should stick to the instrumental side, where a change in style like Zedd’s on this can be quite successful, or mitigating, at least.
[4]
Will Adams: If only Liam Payne’s vocals had followed his own advice and gotten lower in the mix. Not only does his over-presence obscure Zedd’s sticky-sweet arrangement, it emphasizes his inability to elevate bland songwriting.
[4]