The Singles Jukebox

Two guys with no end of possible alternate photos…

[Video][Website]
[5.73]Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: A quick round-up of those that benefited the most off of “Stay”, from best to worst: Rihanna, Vin Diesel, Mikky Ekko. Ekko got paid handsomely — at least, you hope he did — but retained his anonymity as a performer. For Malinchak, he’s putty to be turned into Bruno Mars, and Malinchak himself can’t devote himself to doing anything better than riffing off “Treasure”.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: a/k/a Bruno Mars’s “Treasure,” Part 2. Which is a compliment, because this is a lovely, breezy little 3:30 of classic-MJ-aping pop/soul. Nothing more, but also nothing less.
[7]

Patrick St. Michel: A song crafted out of the sturdiest Michael-Jackson-shaped cookie cutter around — a strutting number that brings to mind Off The Wall and makes you wonder why you aren’t just listening to that instead. But despite being a little too reverent, “Stranger” is still a wonderful summer-disco treat, a nice indulgence as long as you don’t think about it too much.
[6]

Brad Shoup: This is more of a grave rob than Xscape was. Shame on you, “Stay” guy! Those organ fills and string hits are wasted on your impression of a miraculously surfacing beachgoer.
[4]

David Sheffieck: If you must resurrect Michael Jackson once this summer, at least do it with the song that has no possibility of paying Justin Timberlake a royalty.
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: The only thing stopping this from looking like its contributors were pulled from a hat marked “last year’s one hit wonders” is that Malinchak has had two hits, just about. But still, it could just as easily be Ben Pearce featuring Trevor Guthrie. It’d be easy to say that hypothetical or not, they’d stolen that hat from Pharrell, but his was notable for its peak, whereas this is just happy to burble alongside whichever aspirant producer or semi-indie group has been listening to disco this week on 102.2 The Pigeon. A problem though: gentle local radio staples actually require a bit more edge than this.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Someone listened to “Baby Be Mine” often as a child, and in that it’s not charmless, but unlike Hercules & Love Affair’s fascination with early-’90s house, this retro-nuevo exercise doesn’t permutate as ingeniously as I’d like.
[6]

Jer Fairall: Like some forgotten second-tier El DeBarge or Ready For The World single from 1986, which Ekko’s featherweight vocal evokes just as sweetly as Malinchak’s rubbery synth-funk. As a follow-up to last year’s transcendently gorgeous “So Good To Me,” however, the regression towards pastiche feels anticlimactic.
[6]

Megan Harrington: Unfortunately, this two-become-one isn’t a stable enough force to unseat Chris Brown from his next-Michael Jackson throne. It is eerie, though!
[5]

Will Adams: “Is this Michael Jackson?” someone will undoubtedly ask me when I slot this in the first third of a late summer playlist. No, it’s not MJ, but that doesn’t even matter. You can pretend it’s him, you can pretend he’s still alive, or even if you don’t pretend, you can reminisce and feel nostalgic. The point is that this song sounds like Michael Jackson, so you like it, because who doesn’t like Michael Jackson? It’s a cheap ploy, but “Stranger” is by no means the first song to do this, even in this year. Malinchak’s production is lovely — those strings swooping in sparingly but always at the right moments, the hard candy synth pads, the gummy bassline — and Mikky Ekko proves to be a good emulator; “Stranger” is primed for summer, for better or for worse.
[7]

Mallory O’Donnell: Charming enough, but all the MJ-aping just relegates its status to that of retro exercise. We all miss him, we all miss simpler times. Now get over it.
[5]