Going long on the shortest song we’ve ever covered…

[Video]
[3.69]

Will Adams: I have never played Minecraft. I do not know what “chicken jockey” is, nor do I understand why it has caused Vesuvius-grade eruptions of popcorn in theaters across the nation. Who is Steve. What does Jack Black think about all this. Is he just cashing a check. Is he genuinely excited to sing about this fictional snack. Are jingles songs. Am I still human. Does anything matter.
[3]

Iain Mew: To my seven-year-old and friends this is one of the best things in pop. The children yearn for the memes. Except their other favourite is “APT.,” and not just for the title chant. Instead, the success of “Steve’s Lava Chicken” is perhaps at least as much to do with it sounding less like a jingle and more like a song shrunk down to component parts and bashed together into a weird new small space, down to the miniature solo. As comedy it’s not a patch on “Peaches,” but as pop it’s a lot stickier. 
[6]

Taylor Alatorre: 18. In a recent film based on a popular video game, an advertisement for a fictional food item claims the following: “Steve’s Lava Chicken, yeah, it’s tasty as hell! Crispy and juicy, now you’re havin’ a snack. Ooh, super spicy, it’s a lava attack!” Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the persuasiveness of the advertisement’s argument?  (A) Spiciness levels are subjective and can vary from person to person. (B) The chicken’s appearance in a video game-themed film suggests it is popular with younger audiences. (C) Most consumers in a taste test described Steve’s Lava Chicken as having a noticeable kick that lingered after eating. (D) The pairing of Jack Black and Jared Hess in 2025 is as quaintly anachronistic as the use of “Time After Time” was in Napoleon Dynamite. (E) Digital chickens cannot feel pain.
[6]

Jel Bugle: Er, what’s the point of reviewing this?

Loveable everyman Jack Black, fallen from grace, never to recover

32 seconds of my life lost, 64 seconds as I played it twice. 

Though, I did think — what if Jack was still favoured would I give this a higher score, maybe a 3?

Actually, it’s 3 days later and I can’t remember how this ‘song’ goes, so I have revised to
[0]

Claire Davidson: Jack Black’s manchild schtick has led me to repeatedly forget that the guy does have actual pipes, which lend him a sense of conviction that makes this musical fragment — a four-line ode to spicy chicken — mercifully less annoying. Still, I do not envy the parents who will inevitably have to hear their bored tweens scream this song ad nauseum throughout the upcoming summer, so I can only assign so many points for commitment to the bit.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Get Jack Black to write choruses for Drake, stat.
[7]

Alex Clifton: It sure is a jingle about chicken.
[4]

Mark Sinker: “Rendered lame in the context of our appreciation” for sure, but what if also always already lame in all the other contexts as well.
[1]

Nortey Dowuona: Miles Caton deserves better than this. Jack Black does not.
[0]

Tim de Reuse: Buoyed by a punchy nu-disco beat, and smooth, glassy rave piano, Black belts out a razor-sharp, twisty performance. The momentum is stymied only by the bizarre mixing – his tone is high and astringent over the instrumental, and the piano struggles to make itself heard. I assume they’ll come out with a much longer remix for the standalone soundtrack album that will address these issues.
[5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Glad there’s an extended version — I really needed to luxuriate in all 83 seconds of this groove.
[3]

Joshua Lu: I guess every generation deserves their own Jack Black movie music moment, but didn’t Gen Alpha already get “Peaches“? Even A Minecraft Movie acknowledges that this song amounts to little more than a commercial jingle; a decent jingle, sure, delivered with conviction and riding a bouncy beat, but a jingle nonetheless. I also haven’t played Minecraft in years, but wouldn’t the cooking methodology in the movie not even work in the game, because the lava would instantly burn the items?
[3]

Ian Mathers: Look, lava simply would not do that to chicken.
[4]