The Singles Jukebox

“Soft guitar strumming and ear-splitting thrashes / Crisp hi-hat shuffles and big cymbal crashes / Cellos that swell with their heavenly strings / these are a few of my favourite things…”

[Video]
[6.00]

Vikram Joseph: A pyrotechnic, uninhibited summer banger born prematurely into the gloom of January, “Favourite Thing” is nonetheless extremely welcome. A tantalising, elastic guitar riff holds things together until the irrepressible, near-wordless chorus lands – not so much a drop as an eruption, the carnal rush of Fleur East’s lyrics (“Your body can do so many things, and I want to try them all!”) matched by the physicality of the production. It might be out of season, but this will have matured nicely by June.
[8]

Juan F. Carruyo: I hope this gets played at stadiums. I don’t live near one, but hope is hope. Filled with at least 3 recognizable hooks; one better than the other, the song builds in intensity as it goes by each section climaxing with anthemic “na-na-nas” and then repeats the process but with Fleur East singing an octave higher. Awe-inspiring arrangement. 
[8]

Will Adams: Finally, “Fuego” gets a proper chorus! “Favourite Thing” is an admittedly predictable pivot three years after “Sax” — Bruno-style big band is out, vaguely global tuba-bass pop is in — but Fleur East’s warm vocal sells the hooks enough to rise above the status quo.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Kisses do taste better than caviar — she’s right. Fully articulated choruses sound better than generic cut-ups too.
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: Big, brassy pop that’s a little too Little Mix for my taste; hopefully Fleur’s got another “Sax” in her, but this isn’t it.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: Overdone and misjudged at every turn. The verses are a stock donk on what clearly wants to be a midtempo acoustic slink; the bridge is a 2017 pitch-shifted vocal hitched to a 2011 Rihanna breakdown; the lyrics are infatuation and lust set to the most morose of melodies; the chorus starts overproduced and grows ever more so. The resulting gargantuan contraption would almost work, if if felt connected to anything else in the song, and if its final trick didn’t come straight from “Good Girls Go Bad.”
[3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: YouTube comments led me to an African gospel song that features a melody Fleur East potentially lifted for the line “Every time you touch my body.” I suppose it’s an apt fit, as this is a song about rapturous delight in intimacy. But everything that I want to love about this is ruined by a small, static-like sound that appears in the left channel during the chorus. You can hear it at 1:03 in the song (1:00 in the music video) and it repeats throughout. My best guess is that producer duo Red Triangle trimmed a drum loop a bit too long, allowing the initial milliseconds of percussion (likely the one you hear in the bridge occupying the same space) to remain. They then copy and pasted it without recognizing their mistake. Fleur East deserves better.
[3]

Nortey Dowuona: Slippery, glancing synths swim around Fleur’s sweeping cirrus as slight guitars follow the soft, pulsing bass and nipping, then hollow drums. The “Everybody Blow Your Trumpet” interpolation is a nice touch, with clipping synths added in in the home stretch.
[8]