The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

m-flo ft. 2NE1 – She’s So (Outta Control)

This was pretty much my reaction to the rest of the vid too…


[Video][Website]
[5.40]

Katherine St Asaph: But someone‘s got to be. Ideally, it’d be one of the artists.
[2]

Anthony Easton: The funny thing about this is that it is completely in control. There is not one hair out of place, and anything that could be considered filthy is hidden — I have to love the way she “ahahaha”s. Even when 2NE1 suggest they wants to verb his noun all night long, they explicitly asks what is going to happen. Perhaps the least erotic song that uses dance as a metaphor.
[4]

Sabina Tang: Collaborations were m-flo’s bread and butter during the mid-00s, and in halcyon days they were understatedly canny about crafting the right setting, hanging back to show off their guests (“Starstruck”) or — more often — chopping and screwing to their hearts’ content (“HEY!”, “Astrosexy”). “She’s So (Outta Control)” falls down in the editing suite, precisely and fatally m-flo’s former strength: they individualize 2NE1 just the wrong amount. Each member gets breathing room, but Bom’s hook falls flat compared to eg. her contribution to “Oh Yeah,” and the track lurches from CL’s revitalizing rap to Minzy’s shimmery electro sweetness without managing any semblance of transition or coherency. No one can hear Dara, perhaps the most naturally m-flo-esque singer of the lot. Easy to Monday morning quarterback the conclusion: they should’ve picked one (I vote CL), or blitzed us with a four-track EP. 
[5]

Jer Fairall: m-flo’s dazed yet commanding vocals initially suggest the heady whirl of Madchester, a sensation that the dreamy fog of the music wholly supports, but when 2NE1’s candy-coated guest bit kicks in, the scene swiftly shifts from the club to the mall and the rest of the track spends the remainder of its running time careening between these two competing impulses. Only a current underexposure to the former sound and a vast overexposure to the latter one keeps me from digging this completely, though, truth be told, it all ends up cohering reasonably well. 
[6]

Alex Ostroff: m-flo’s monotone flow conveys absolutely nothing. When the Black Eyed Peas autotune themselves to death, the remnants of their personalities still haunt the music. m-flo is a machine lacking any such ghosts. Thankfully, 2NE1’s parts are delightfully joyous, like floating on a summer cloud, and CL’s brief rap gives “She’s So (Outta Control)” a shot of adrenaline at its heart.
[6]

Iain Mew: “Born Slippy” + “Truly Madly Deeply” + “I Gotta Feeling” + Did CL just say “I’m hotter than a vulva”??
[6]

Frank Kogan: The beat throbs along like nice little sunbursts, then builds up a bit of tension and anguish, and a somewhat catchy melody enters. At 2:30 the energy briefly triples as a young woman declares “I am hotter than a vol v-vol v-vol vol vol/cano.” This is CL, the most exuberant human being in the history of planet Earth. But her voice is treated and filtered, toning down the exuberance from stellar to merely meteoric. This seems a very strange choice of m-flo’s, to subdue CL’s voice like that.
[5]

Brad Shoup: Doggedly declines to go full bosh, and all the better for it. The jump from raps to whatever part’s next gets incrementally smoother, with the capper being a rather matter-of-fact plea to “uninstall everything.” Please leave my laptop out of this, but if defragging had a sound, it’d surely be that munching, warping synth. The interplay between Verbal and 2NE1 is utterly charming; would that the male-female pop-rap interplay could take root in the States. Nicki’s coasting and Flo Rida’s craftsmanship have to meet at some point, right?
[9]

Alfred Soto: Blessed with a chorus so moronic-simple that it’s repeated for a full minute; the producers know whereof they speak. The rest is a compendium of Dance Pop Sounds 2012, and a tastier sampler than the full course offerings of Guetta.
[5]

Jonathan Bogart: Calvin Harris or David Guetta would be proud. Not sure than 2NE1 has any reason to be.
[6]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments