The Singles Jukebox

Under our expectations…

[Video]
[4.86]

Eleanor Graham: It’s no “lose the argument in a cable car,” but really, what is? This is cold, hard math-pop gap-filled by phrases that bear no weight whatsoever. It does not care about you at all, and thus you are completely within your rights to sing “shut the fuck up” to the chorus melody.
[2]

Alfred Soto: The rolling confidence of the singing and vocal melody that builds to a multitracked chorus suggests peak Backstreet Boys, and those screeches recall more abrasive genres. Yet I don’t connect like I do with peak Lana Del Rey or even “Cool Kids.”
[6]

Will Adams: I was harsher than necessary on “Cool Kids” — its breeziness sounds perfectly lovely when compared to this. “Over My Head” takes after the dusky pop made cool by “Same Old Love” and “Havana,” but saddles it with a leaden melody and chintzy organ plonk.
[4]

Nortey Dowuona: Shifting, airy synths drift aimlessly over lithe, pumping bass and pillow-hard drums with slight, barely visible guitar wafts over as as the family trio, especially Sydney, stir the song into a foamy frenzy.
[7]

Alex Clifton: I’ve always been secretly, weirdly fond of Echosmith; while “Cool Kids” got overly repetitive, I always found myself tapping my feet to it. “Over My Head” is a portrait of a relationship dissolving because the other person’s an overexplaining asshole, an appropriate song for your 20s where you meet boys who talk above you with such confidence that your brain can’t fathom their emotional depths. It’s a bit beleaguered by hitting the title phrase into the ground, but I love the hook, so I’m fine with it.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: One of the best lyrical burns against a certain strain of supercilious person (usually a man, talking to a woman he thinks is a girl) is the chorus to Swedish group Montys Loco’s “Criminal“: “What were you trying to show me — that your dark side has a theory behind it?” “There’s always static on TV in this hotel room — reminds me of all the things you think I don’t understand” isn’t nearly so brutal, and the rest of Echosmith’s lyric even less so, but the sentiment is urgent, not nearly expressed enough, and deserves to be in 100 pop songs every year from now until the end of condescension. I just wish it weren’t expressed in X Ambassadors form.
[5]

Crystal Leww: Echosmith’s debut album was a surprising favorite of mine, and I think that Echosmith are a really talented young band. Sydney Sierota could be the next Hayley Williams; she’s cool but her music is vulnerable and relatable enough for the everyday teen. It’s a shame that they haven’t had a song chart since 2015, because it feels like their sound has been a melded a little bit by what’s been selling lately. The lyrics still reflect Sierota’s relatable vulnerability, but the music around the vocal has shifted to sound very Twenty One Pilots-esque. This is just very bleh for a talented, youthful band.
[5]