The Singles Jukebox

Anyway – enough grousing, time for THREE CANADIANS IN A ROW, starting with a keytar-wielding teen…

[Video][Myspace]
[4.73]

Matt Cibula: Only later, as a bare-breasted Lights Poxleitner waved the red flag of anarcho-socialism over the burning remains of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, did we remember that she had warned us all back in 2009. “Saviour” was the first warning shot across the bow of western civilization…and we were too stupid to realize it at the time.
[5]

Alex Ostroff:It pains me that this is the first taste the Jukebox is getting of Lights, who has been floating around Canada for the better part of a year releasing energetically angular and surprisingly affecting gems of electropop off her 2008 EP. “Saviour” is good, and representative of her wordy, epically ethereal, 80s-tinged style, but she’s needlessly Autotuned here, sapping her voice of its natural expressiveness, and in need of a stronger hook.
[8]

Chuck Eddy: Indie electro-dribble tweeted in an infantilized girlie whimper, turning confessionally quasi-Christian (or real Christian, maybe) as it gains ground. Amazingly, it doesn’t absolutely stink.
[4]

Edward Okulicz: Come on people, it’s a woman playing a key-tar and singing like she’s either very simple or about 6 years old, what’s not to like?
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: Oh great: ugly compressed sudden-volume-jump chorus and gratuitous Autotune meets Canadian twee-dink-pop. No wonder they have socialized medicine up there.
[3]

Kat Stevens: In places Lights’ voice reminds me of a young Britney Spears (before Britters got all breathless and slurred), but it lacks that gritted determination to Succeed At All Costs.
[6]

Ian Mathers: This might have been true even without the garish AutoTune, but her voice is just so determinedly ‘cute’ that it’s terribly grating. And her backing shrieks near the end are genuinely unpleasant. Maybe if the lyrics were better or the instrumentation more interesting I could overlook all that, but as it is this is one step up from Owl City.
[2]

Martin Skidmore: There’s a moment as she enters the first chorus where I thought this twee little synthy pop number was going to explode into life, but it stays where it is, plinking along. A big house remix could be good, but as it is it seems like just another female pop singer-songwriter of no great interest.
[4]

John Seroff: When the perhaps unavoidable Breakfast Club sequel rears its head, this will slot nicely for the emotional scene where the pierced riot grrrl outcast tenderly embraces the closeted cheerleader. For day-to-day listening though, this is irritatingly bland. Kewpie doll vocals, bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup phrasing and egregious overuse of autotune were all used to greater effect on Armageddon.
[3]

Martin Kavka: Upon the discovery that this woman has legally changed her first name to “Lights,” one might start to make jokes about her (or her siblings, Camera and Action). “Saviour” doesn’t really stymie such assholish behavior — in part because the video opens with a scene of her writing the song on her keytar — but in the larger scheme of stream-of-consciousness singer-songwriter-with-issues territory, this is by no means bad.
[5]

Anthony Miccio: Recommended to those who wish t.A.T.u. had been more reasonable.
[5]