The Singles Jukebox

He isn’t popular, he isn’t popular…

[Video][Website]
[2.50]

Katherine St Asaph: Made the mistake of watching the video first. It’s frontloaded with shit, namely two bros pretending to play video games but failing to realize that gunfire of the velocity heard would require them to be actually mashing buttons. The screen’s not shown, for obvious reasons. One guy eats nachos that, as filmed, may well be plastic wrap. Then their blonde-bot girlfriends come in and aww man, they are killing the guys’ gaming with their flirting and their unsubtle putdowns and their girliness. And it’s all filmed in sepia because sepia is cool regardless of context. The point? To set the tone for the Benny Blanco – Ashton Kutcher collaboration of my nightmares. 
[2]

Brad Shoup: When you can’t even do narcissism right, you have a problem.
[0]

Iain Mew: I’m a bit confused by “put your hearts in the air,” which doesn’t really mean anything and doesn’t seem to be there for any reason other than “put your hands in the air” has worked quite often. Even that doesn’t fit when he’s quite happy to start off with “Please excuse me if I sound rude.” Perhaps it’s all part of the song gently poking fun at itself, thanks to Eric’s natural charm and being just funny enough without overstating his punchlines.
[6]

Jer Fairall: Saade’s vocals have a flavourless Backstreet Boys quality, and the production would be nearly as slavish were it not for those cool synth ripples running through the thing. The lyrics go more for self-aggrandizing than faux-inspiration, which only leaves J-Son’s guest verse sounding perversely laudatory of his partner in such a way that might be unhealthy if Eric ain’t reciprocating. 
[4]

Ian Mathers: Are we sure this isn’t one of the lesser guys form N’Sync or something? “Don’t be a fool, do it like I do” is one hell of a mixed message, especially since the track seems to think that our minds will be blown by its It Gets Better-lite rhetoric. I’m still stuck on the awful, mawkish title sentiment. You’re giving self-expression a bad name, dude.
[1]

Alfred Soto: I thought this Swede superstar with the vanilla face could afford a more coherent amalgam of self-empowerment boilerplate and hustler jive. If he’s going to sing “till [his] lungs pop some air,” then sing, damn it.
[2]