The Singles Jukebox

You just keep telling yourself that, French…

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[5.88]

Adaora Ede: For starters, I love just how much French Montana desperately tries to fluff up his profile with features — see Kodak Black’s brattiness in “Lockjaw” outshining French’s stodgy verses in 2016 — and ends up sounding like the guest verse himself. The ambiance this time around is derealized dancehall, and the swagger moves lowkey Southern, weirdly enough, giving me The Love Below vibes. From what French Montana has said himself, “Unforgettable” is supposed to be a part of the canon of mainstream aspirational hip-hop hits that we all know and love, a la Swae’s own “Black Beatles” and Quavo and the Boys’ “Bad and Boujee,” but French’s story is yet again overshadowed by the vibrancy of a beautiful R&B chorus. Still, a good melody tends to make a good song, especially one that sounds like it was ripped from an autobiographical Wizkid song — definitely a determining reason as to why my very Nigerian mother would ask me to download a song by Khloe K’s ex bf and the small one from Rae Sremmurd for her running playlist — and it’s doubly as good when its stripped down Afrobeats are genuine to a sound that has enchanted Western pop music’s psyche for a while.
[7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: It would’ve been nice if Wizkid appeared here, as he did on the original demo, but it’s even nicer that Swae Lee’s first and best verse was transformed into the chorus that we now hear on this final version of “Unforgettable.” It doesn’t even matter what rapper hopped on this track because that hook is the most infectious thing Swae Lee’s sung to date. It’s just a relief that French Montana, someone whose career has always been highly collaborative, makes sure not to kill the vibe. When “Unforgettable” first came out, it featured no more than ten seconds of Jeremih singing. However, that was more than enough time to realize just how much of a buzzkill his presence was. Thankfully, the fat’s been trimmed and we’re left with more sweet, sweet Swae.
[8]

Nortey Dowuona: Swae Lee is a superb songwriter. He added both ennui and glee to perfect pint, formation and all of SremmLife 2. But French Montana is a bad rapper, one whose only appeal is his hook game. And worse, the limp, noodle groove and monotonous bass seem to lift Swae’s ghostly vocals into the clouds while crushing French underneath. Who ever made this beat did not like Swae at all, because this is the fake dancehall that could launch Swae’s solo career, but instead he’s playing second banjo to French’s cut string acoustic guitar. (FYI: Mike Classic’s “Woosah” is better.)
[3]

Thomas Inskeep: Oh please oh please oh please can Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee become the new hip-hop hook singer du jour? His sweet-as-sugarcane voice is absolutely perfect for the job. Funny how his natural magnetism (and airtime) manages to basically reduce French Montana to a guest on what’s ostensibly his own single, but no worries: between Swae’s chorus, French’s verses, and the gorgeously dancehall-inflected production, everyone wins here.
[8]

Alfred Soto: Reversing the credits would’ve made sense. Swae Lee’s anguished tones dominate, and I’m ambivalent about his attempt to play Chris Brown — it’s the difference between direct versus indirect dialogue or narrative versus dialogue. But can we discuss how French sounds like he’s coming on to Swae? Can we discuss how at five minutes he’ll convince no one?
[5]

Tim de Reuse: A pleasant, gently driving tune let down by strangely muffled production that puts Swae Lee’s otherwise lovely hook on the other side of a heavy curtain and by how it’s about a minute bigger than it’s able to string out the charm for.
[6]

Micha Cavaseno: Swae Lee manages to deplete all of our planet’s precious reverb here on this track, sounding both majestic and inane all at once. French Montana does the same, without our precious studio effects. The production sounds like something off of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Beauty album just as it feels like French riding yet another trend in rap music. The irony is that this is about as forgettable as anything else could be.
[4]

Crystal Leww: With a breezy dancehall beat and flirty chorus, “Unforgettable” could theoretically slot nicely into any summer 2k17 playlist. Swae Lee is going to be massive when he goes solo — this is just solid pop songwriting with vocals that remind me of how Jeremih used to sound in the summer of 2015. French Montana is too much on this, and ultimately almost ruins it. The joke is that Meek Mill is the loud rapper, but we need to talk about French Montana. Dude has been fucking loud for what feels like every summer since 2012 but here when the mood is intended to be flirty and seductive, it just feels like that one dude who is too drunk at the afternoon pool party. There are remixes with Wizkid and J Hus, and wow, what this could have been with the right artists attached to it.
[6]