The Singles Jukebox

911 from the 305!

[Video][Website]
[6.36]

Will Adams: More nimble than “Time of Our Lives” but less anthemic, “Fun” has vague aspirations to its titular promise but doesn’t quite deliver. That particular brand of fun, however, seems to approximate Gloria Estefan, so that earns it at least one extra point.
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: This rhythm is, in fact, not gonna get me. However, Chris Brown sounds like he’s having more, well, fun than he has in years. Pitbull is as always the musical equivalent of a venti frappucino, all empty calories and sugar crashes. 
[3]

Patrick St. Michel: I’m not sure about Chris Brown’s vocal role in this, nor am I really taken by the cheesy party breakdown. Then again, I’m not as savvy an entrepreneur as Pitbull, someone who takes pride in the fact he performed a show for a tech giant, so I trust he knows what he’s up to.
[5]

Alfred Soto: The sampled woodwind and skittery rhythm guitar coax the best out of Chris Brown, and he earns the title designation. For once Mr. 305’s staccato doggerel doesn’t distract — or detract.
[6]

Crystal Leww: Is it possible that Pitbull is singlehandedly keeping alive EDM-pop? I don’t mean EDM turned into pop like Calvin Harris or David Guetta, but Pitbull is one of the only high profile pop artists still leaning into the EDM sound. Either way, this is surprisingly a hell of a lot of fun. A lot of people like to dismiss Chris Brown as replaceable, and it’s true that there are other dudes with better dance moves and better voices or at least similar ones, but who is going to be this good at choosing beats and songs? The Monsters and the Strangerz have now produced a slew of hidden pop bangers for everyone from Zendaya to Bebe Rexha to Maroon 5, and credit to Pitbull and Chris Brown for capitalizing on their talents and the sound of some goofy pan flute. They are already starting to become higher in demand; Chris Brown competitor Jason Derulo’s got their production “Cheyenne” on his latest album. Pitbull continues to lean into his goofiness, boasting about performing for Microsoft, slipping up and letting “fun” blatantly stand for fucking, and letting “icky” rhyme with “icky” six times. He’s a beautiful genius, and Chris Brown is good at making music.
[8]

Scott Mildenhall: The back half of Pitbull’s first verse here, where he literally trails off into a laugh to fill time until the necessary rhyme, is perhaps the most Pitbull he could ever be. If not that, it could be the later part where he brazenly breaks the rule of triples in saying “icky” a whole four times, again to bide time until the next line. He’s barely even on the song, and yet he seems to wish he could be less. In other people’s hands – maybe his, on another day – the production could initiate something entertaining, but this is rote and joyless.
[5]

Anthony Easton: Oh, this is just silly, and most likely fucked up, and the lyrics are laugh out loud. The tropical instrumentation is so on the noise that Louis Prima would find it shameful, but towards the second chorus, none of those are vices, and most virtues. Extra point for the vocoder. 
[8]

Edward Okulicz: My enjoyment of Pitbull has been on a rocky curve over time, but it’s definitely on an up lately; he’s just so agreeably silly and willing to chuck anything on a track to be entertaining. Chris Brown’s bit is like an adequate if not great lost Michael Jackson song (if he were still alive in 2015 for someone to pitch it), and the generic Latin dance pop from the 90s vibe of the chorus is goofy pleasure. It is pretty fun, and Pit is both on brand and on message.
[7]

Mo Kim: Pan flutes! Slinky synthlines! Blasts of horn confetti everywhere! Chris Brown not wheezing like a terminally-ill horse for once! Pitbull barraging through every line of this like a tractor through a middle school gym! Shout-outs to Microsoft and the 305! Blood! Sweat! Success! Pan flutes!
[9]

Brad Shoup: Only Pitbull could brag about performing at a Microsoft expo and come off charming. It helps that elsewhere he’s deadly serious about fun, muttering underneath Chris Brown, letting the beguiling flute hook unspool. Brown turns in an existential performance, blessedly shelving the hyper-awareness for a time. This is perfect early-night music. It holds the promise of mysteries to come.
[9]

Andy Hutchins: Chris Brown is more palatable when he’s anonymously decent. Pitbull, though, is boring when he isn’t given much to do and says nothing more memorable or worthwhile here than “sticky / Icky, icky, icky, icky.” How much fun can one flute sample be?
[4]