The Singles Jukebox

Lithuania might not have wanted this for Eurovision, but what do we think?

[Video]
[6.30]

Will Adams: What the hell kind of person would come up with this fanfic of a song that’s The Saturdays’ cover of “Just Can’t Get Enough” but gaudier, sung by someone with the emotional heft of Jamala and then presented as a Lip Sync For Your Life? Me, probably.
[6]

Ian Mathers: Maybe this works especially well for me because yes, I do agree that “ain’t nothing’s obvious” is sufficient cause to get frightened. But pick a couple of likely-sounding lines and cycle them this forcefully over a post-New Order set of arpeggios and you’ve probably got me anyway.
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: Be it revelation or illusion, anything can become profound if repeated often enough. “Nothing’s obvious” — and what better proof could you need than this song and its performance? “Nothing’s obvious” — and so why search for reason? “Nothing’s obvious” — and so maybe the reason is in letting it go and letting go. “Get Frighten” kind of appears to be a joke, but it’s hard to really tell. Its arcane mantra and dizzied synths are only the beginning of its beguiling surreality, but what it offers on a simpler level is encouragement borne of a sense of release. “Get frighten” is the more invigorating “feel the fear and do it anyway.” Little in 2017 could have transmitted such shareable power as Lolita Zero in a giant cape and pyrotechnic horns, destroying watermelons with a fist.
[9]

Alfred Soto: It didn’t frighten me, but it did get me moving. Imagine Fever Ray freaking out over a rattling sequencer.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: *opens up Gmail, types in a frenzy* PITCH: The Enduring Influence of Al Walser
[3]

Brad Shoup: I just went to take the garbage and compost cans to the curb so I wouldn’t start crying on our couch. I mean, imagine almost all of 2017 passing, and you didn’t know that someone trapped La Roux’s “Fascination” vocal in a basement disco. I really thought my single of the year was going to be “TBT,” but the winner takes it all. You know?
[10]

Katie Gill: Who’s ready for questions about authenticity politics for DAYS? Does it really count as a singer performing something if the majority of the song is sung by a back-up singer and the performer lip-synced the majority of the song in the live performance? Does the fact that it’s a drag performer mean we should overlook the lip sync, as lip syncing’s become a well-known part of drag culture? Or is all of this overthinking and putting way too much emphasis on a song that sounds like a basic club hit from the 1990s that somehow got resurrected in 2017 with having absolutely nothing change from the 1990s? I’m going for the last option. There’s not much to this song in the first place, so why overthink it?
[5]

Nortey Dowuona: Long, droning strings lead into clattering synths with Lolita drifting through the middle, hopping from flat drum to flat drum with chord drops feeling tacked on in the far reaches of the mix while the bass needles underneath.
[5]

Julian Baldsing: I think fear’s a more useful motivator than people want to give it credit for. It’s such a threatening emotion that we never like having it around, so we lock it in a cage, throw a blanket over it, and do our utmost to forget it exists. But what Lolita tries to hammer in is that fear can only truly hurt you when it’s able to debilitate you — and that its greatest strength is the element of surprise. So while “Get Frighten” relentlessly rips into your sense of security and seemingly aims to throw your entire world into chaos, Lolita positions her actions as a precautionary measure, or a gesture of tough love — like a mama bird pushing you out of the nest, so you don’t end up as cat food when the real danger comes around.
[7]

Iain Mew: Like being carried on a fast-moving conveyer belt through walls of marshmallow. Give me another five listens and I might even be able to decide if that’s a good or a bad thing. 
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