The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

The Internet – Cocaine

That is some quality Google-proofing right there…


[Video][Website]
[4.88]

Kat Stevens: KIDS TODAY GET OFF MY LAWN
[1]

Zach Lyon: I have trouble even trying to process songs about coke, or allowing them any space in my brain at all, so my odds are stacked against this, even having read Syd’s explanation on her Tumblr. Of course, Syd and Left Brain are too young to have learned that no matter what stance your song takes regarding a drug, it will always, always be interpreted as pro-that-drug by users everywhere. This just bothers me because the bulk of Odd Future’s audience has shown itself to be nothing if not impressionable. Whatever. The song itself sounds pleasant but doesn’t break enough ground to warrant a third listen.
[3]

Anthony Easton: The mostly redundant book on Laurel Canyon has a great chapter on the damage coke did to bands in LA in the 70s. While it might have destroyed the Eagles, it seems to be an excellent acompaniment to anything that features languor and synths. I cannot quite figure out why; maybe a kind of toxic irony resting on a set of formal issues about effect and affect. I like this shit more than I should. 
[8]

Alfred Soto: When I want a document of cocaine as an affective agent instead of subject, I need only listen to Drake. The decent synth programming on this number evokes “lazy” more than any narcotic, however, despite the basso intoning “Let’s snort.” Meanwhile I’m still waiting for the hip-hop electronic version of Tusk not released by The Weeknd.
[5]

Jonathan Bogart: And here we have my primary (aesthetic) problem with the OFWGKTA bunch. There’s a good song here — not great, maybe, but good — and the woozy, unstable drift of the music as well as the slur in Syd’s singing provides enough of an undercurrent of menace and malice that no one would take the drifting-high melody and pretty singing at face value. But no, they’ve got to make sure no one thinks they’re pussies, so there’s a pitched-down rap snarling at the listener for daring to enjoy themselves. Congratulations, kids, you’re nuance-free again.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: The weightless glide is the most appealing feature of “Cocaine,” even if it does result in a formlessness that, particularly with Syd’s wispy vocal, keeps proceedings far more anonymous than the usual product of the Odd Future cartel. It’s slight, then, but gently ingratiating; the vaguely tropical lilt is uneasy and Left Brain’s bassy interjection midway through makes for a rude interruption too distant to be properly disruptive. He sounds a bit like the voice of someone shaking you awake from a dream. Syd’s is the one tempting you back to somnolence.  
[7]

Brad Shoup: Kinda neat that Syd’s on the mic, but Left Brain’s got that early electro-rap thing going on. I’d take his banal present-tense narration over her thin white pickup lines every time. 
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: Syd da Kid does Cassie does chillwave does “lol jk.” Guess where this chain stops being awesome.
[6]

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