The Singles Jukebox

A song for the youth?

[Video]
[3.29]

Kat Stevens: Jonas and his gang are desperate for their chance at carefree summer hedonism, but having spent half my sunny weekend sorting out laundry and doing the hoovering, I am on the wrong side of this generational split. If Jonas just did his chores now instead of complaining about them, he’d have plenty of time to hang out with his friends! “By all means dash off to your tropical rave-up, dear, but remember to fill up the tank on your way home.”
[5]

Hazel Southwell: As one of the few people who a) liked tropical house in the first place and b) still, inexplicably, does I am disappointed to see that Jonas Blue has moved across into bro tracks unbefitting of a third-rate cash-in on an economic boyband upturn. 
[3]

Alfred Soto: These polite lads couldn’t hook up with a K-pop producer for zippier pleasures?
[2]

Stephen Eisermann: Is pop music really at the point where we have to emulate the Chainsmokers for a hit? 
[3]

Juana Giaimo: The lyrics aim to be a song that represents a generation: oh, we are so different to our parents, we are savage! But hey, your parents already did this song too. And it was probably so much better — and less repetitive.  
[4]

Scott Mildenhall: Who is this for? Everyone, of course, and the lyrics can be bypassed. But still. The opposition constructed between the unspecified but presumably ancient “they” and the indeterminately younger but more amorphous “we” is earcatching. Is “they don’t speak our language” merely a hackneyed attempt at voicing stereotypical teenagers mad at their parents, or is it a more subtle reference to misuse of the term “savage,” one that has ameliorated under the steam and in the eyes of people who have heard of Jack and Jack? Either these imaginary parents are chastising their children as “savage,” which would be weird, or somehow attempting and failing to use the word as their children are doing, which may be even weirder. Then again, maybe those parents just wrote the song itself. But hang on. How old are these cartoon children? Old enough to be “dropouts, living at our mom’s house?” Now they’re in the realms of a different age-group fiction (and one that probably precludes “they” being parents). And whether they’re generalising or not, it’s hard to imagine that Internet Personalities Jack and Jack believe anyone perceives them as anything other than Successful Internet Personalities. Props to them: they’ve discovered an odd liminal space between different, middle class and very American-seeming ideas of inter-generational discontent, almost as if selling the notion of being considered a “dropout” to fans who are too young to likely be one, but not old enough to be disinclined towards “savage.” In fact it’s a space so liminal that it may not exist.
[4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: From the hyperactive flute hook to the chopped and repeated vocal phrasings, this is a deeply brittle song, with no single element given adequate room to breathe or stand on its own. This is not necessarily a bad mood for a pop song to be in — ask any good new wave group — but considering that everything about “Rise” otherwise indicates it’s supposed to be in the gleeful, fuck-the-haters mold, the whole thing just comes off as unconvincing.
[2]