The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

Medina – Synd For Dig

Best headgear in a 2011 video?


[Video][Website]
[7.29]

Brad Shoup: Starts as sort of a bitter Hi-NRG update, segues into an awed sweep. The transition is accomplished with a phenomenally restrained sequencer/orchestral section that bears resemblance to “With Every Heatbeat.” If Google Translate is to be believed, the Statistically Improbable Phrase is “look at me while I puke,” which may be unprecedented in pop. I keep expecting the song to explode into a dread-filled breakdown, but Medina seems concerned with making appeals to reason, and the elements.
[8]

Iain Mew: I love the jittery, prickly synth line and stuttering vocals all over the place. The late switch to being cocooned in strings and triumphant re-emergence with a sparkly new synth line is fantastic. And Medina holds onto a mood strongly enough that even as the song goes a bit dubstep, for once it actually doesn’t feel like a disruption as much as another facet of the same approach. Even better than “Kun For Mig.”
[9]

Alex Ostroff: The totally random detour into chopped and screwed male vocals and a twinkly synths’n’strings breakdown before the final chorus are the best part of this. The dirty South snare runs are a nice addition to the Medina template. But, for whatever reason, it fails to grab me the way “Kun For Mig” did.
[5]

Jer Fairall: The voice expresses a longing so earnestly and gracefully that I wish I had subtitles for it, as the music, oscillating between sterile electro-pop minimalism and epic cinematic sweep, gives me conflicting clues as to what’s going on. There’s an unresolved tension at the core of this that’s compelling, and some robo-belching interruptions and vague hints of autotune that are unfortunate, but I like wherever it is that she’s taking me.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: There’s the pulses and the beats, all of which are good and catchy. And there’s Medina’s voice, which conveys the idea of “dancing with tears in one’s eyes” better than anyone else’s right now.
[9]

Jonathan Bradley: Between jittery blips and sweeping washes, these synths should be grandiose, but even with bonus dubstep bits, there’s too little dynamism for any sense of drama to properly build. Icy, then, but a bit sludgy as well, like the end of a frozen Coke. 
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: This is the series of pre-choruses before the most cathartic chorus ever recorded: first slow steps and tenterhooks, then a dubstep drop that never quite makes it off the precipice, then the same in a higher register. Later comes the bridge after the most cathartic chorus ever recorded. That chorus never comes, but the rest is so masterful you don’t care.
[9]

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