The Singles Jukebox

I guess this makes this How The High-Scorers Have Fallen (Albeit By Like One Point) Day…

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Alfred Soto: For those like me bored by M.I.A.’s latest foray into the sounds that once delighted her, here are Tkay Maidza and Mike, long on charisma and short on powerful rhymes, but jazzed by the popping rhythm and stentorian clicks.
[7]

Iain Mew: A song which sounds like Santigold-when-she-was-Santogold, but less indie, is a new approach for Maidza, but one she flexes her way into just as confidently as every other. She adds just the right amount of sour to the beat’s sweet lightness, unlike Killer Mike, whose out-of-place verse overpowers regardless of its merits alone.
[6]

Will Rivitz: The inevitable consequence of having Killer Mike on a breakthrough single is that he’ll probably wipe the floor with you. Tkay’s lilting flow is half M.I.A. and half Tyler Joseph (listen to the way she overenunciates “I think” in the first verse and tell me you don’t hear some twenty one pilots influence), and her joyous cannonballing between tones and attitudes gives the song nice depth. Then Mike comes in and takes control, as Mike is wont to do, and for a good minute this becomes his song, but as far as artists derailing something with a guest verse you could do worse.
[7]

Will Adams: Tkay Maidza and Killer Mike are both the kind of performers who can stand out from even the most bonkers of production. So it’s a bit of a letdown that their collaboration had to happen over production that, while satisfying, is a little barebones.
[6]

Cédric Le Merrer: The beat sounds like the future from 2002, which I don’t mind at all, but Killer Mike is embarrassingly old on this (stop it with the scatology, man). Tkay Maidza is as usual much fresher than her surroundings.
[8]

Jonathan Bradley: Tkay Maidza’s twisty, Gak (as in the Nickolodeon toy) flow is as entertaining as ever, even if “Carry On” seems built to be a reintroduction, treading much the same sparse, percussive territory as debut single “U-huh.” Killer Mike shows up as star power, and his verse here is a reminder of how much more adept he is excoriating politicians or running up on out-of-town rubes ambling around Atlanta. His verse makes every encouraging move as Maidza heads into debut album territory shy of giving her a firm handshake and enthusing, “you-can-do-it, champ!” When Tkay’s on the mic, his boosting seems not so much patronizing as bemusing: are we supposed to think it’s necessary?
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: The “Paper Planes” cadence and soaring chords might be nostalgic if I weren’t too old for the original to feel like longer ago than yesterday; the greater sin is a dull guest rap, in which standard boasts feel oddly weightless when delivered in the second person. If this is her crossover moment, I can’t begrudge her it, but I can’t help being disappointed to hear a Tkay Maidza song that sounds like anything I’ve heard before.
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