It’s been three years, Sara. Are we ready to give “us” another shot?…
[Video][Website]
[4.57]
Scott Mildenhall: “If all that’s left to do is walk away, then baby I’m as gone as yesterday”, but whether or not all that’s left to do is walk away depends on something you may or may not be about to say. Schrödinger’s chorus! Perhaps these things are not to be overthought though — what else could explain the unnovative deployment of just three lines in each four line verse — the idea is there, the strings are nice and the chorus has enough uplift to be halfway compelling.
[6]
Crystal Leww: What a great power chorus that proves, no, we don’t need you to slow down at all.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Her last hit “A Little Bit Stronger” put its “self-actualization” platitudes front and center. Returning to what she knows, she coasts on the arrangement: a plucked string hook and chugging guitars over a nondescript voice admirably indifferent to its limits.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: Wish someone would have told those violin plucks to stick around.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Brittle and flailing and no fun. Has she forgotten what pop is? Has she not heard Bangerz?
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: The production — especially those water effects — and Evans’ rich, warm alto sound totally out of country’s perky and/or Southern-rock times; take away the more obvious autotuning and I’d swear this came out 15 years ago. (Which if so, like “Cryin’ Game,” would presumably get an awesome “Say My Name“-style video of doing shit in color-coded rooms.) I’m probably overrating on nostalgia.
[5]
Anthony Easton: There is a distant memory here of Hermann’s string orchestration for Psycho, and that memory adds anxiety to an ambiguous song, but the oversinging and extended vocals push that memory out quickly. It makes sense though — like the runaway train metaphor that derails halfway through, Evans refuses to commit to anything that may be truly unsettling.
[4]