Ms. Jackson’s not in the video, but we can’t help but wonder what she’d make of all this…

[Video][Website]
[5.17]

John Seroff: “Hot Mess” is a ridiculously doofy homage to The Time hobbled with a half-baked rhyme scheme (“aloof/assumed/truth/do”?), nonsensical lyrics, out-of-place accents and Gold Chains levels of white-boy would-be-funk silliness. That said, there’s still a devotion to form and a straight faced commitment that puts this musically and emotionally head and shoulders above similar Slick Mahoney-style parody. Nearly within squealing distance of, say, Klymaxx.
[6]

Chuck Eddy: Man, I should really be open to Chromeo’s stuff — been on a major early ’80s electro-funk kick for the past year, I found them kind of amusing early on, and I’ve always been a fan of their DJ mix CDs. But they settled on being a one-joke band so long ago that they just depress me now. By chance, this wound up shuffled onto a Rhapsody playlist I made right next to ex-Zappster Bigg Robb’s current focus track “Let It Go,” and the difference is startling — they’re both basically the same genre, but Robb’s cheating song manages to retain soul music’s church-testifying dirt on the soles of its boots, and Chromeo’s track feels clinical and cynical in comparison; it’s just plain devoid of emotion. You might think that wouldn’t matter much in robot music, but it does. Also can’t stand up to most of what’s on Dwayne Omarr’s new Multi Funk EP, which doesn’t even have much in the way of songs, but at least evinces a humanity that Chromeo seem incapable of, no matter how closely they study their old System LPs.
[4]

David Moore: Chromeo’s a one-trick pony and I’ve only ever liked one version of the trick — “Bonafied Lovin’.” This isn’t categorically different from anything else by them I’ve ever heard, just a little more monotonous and nondescript. Elly Jackson mildly annoys as usual, but at worst she’s ugly wallpaper on top of ugly wallpaper.
[3]

Iain Mew: I haven’t heard Chromeo before, but this mostly sounds like a La Roux song with slightly less piercing backing. I like his voice a bit more than hers and the drums do a bit more here than theirs, but it still strays into the thin, style over substance territory that La Roux spend most of their time in. The dodgy spoken word bits don’t do it any good either.
[4]

Martin Skidmore: Their old-fashioned electro-funk is at least better backing for her, and it’s not as if Chromeo are any good at singing (they still do, though), but adding a guest singer who isn’t any better doesn’t help.
[4]

Josh Love: A match made in heaven between two artists who don’t have pretensions of being anything more than giddily expressive 80s revivalists. Chromeo unpack seemingly their entire bag of retro tricks – synth squiggles, drum fills, robot vox – while Elly Jackson hits her marks on the sassily effervescent chorus.
[7]

Alfred Soto: The twitchy electrobeat and synth and guitar fills are lifted straight from early eighties R&B; the vocals unfortunately are straight Brit twaddle from the 2000’s. No one involved had Ruth Pointer’s number?
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: There’s a scene in Hairspray (musical, not Waters) where the final song’s playing, the beat is unstoppable and everyone’s shimmying their way around the set except for sulky, bratty Amber Von Tussle, the defeated pageant kid. She tries her hardest to pout and glare away all the fun, but it just won’t work, and eventually she’s drowned out by it. Similarly, no matter how much Elly Jackson grumbles about portentous conversations and bloody social workers, and how much the track practically heaves a sigh whenever it’s her turn, she can’t take the snap out of this.
[7]

Zach Lyon: This is a big disparate mess with a million working parts but enough of them work for me (Elly’s voice/hook, that “WHAT!?”) to at least keep it in steady rotation.
[6]

Pete Baran: When Daft Punk was playing with this updated Moroder kind of funk electronica they knew that less is more. Instead Chromeo, plus La Roux, plus La Roux doing the bored voice-over, plus vocoder, plus a lack of any engaging development in the song, leaves some perfectly pleasant musical ideas out in the cold. Once heard, once forgotten.
[3]

Jer Fairall: Like Human League meets Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat.
[6]

Doug Robertson: No-one sounds like they’re pushing themselves here. It’s not quite doing it by numbers, but you can’t help but feel they’ve not looked much further than the face of a digital watch when it comes to inspiration and exotica.
[5]