You’re just a Haddaway, you’re just a feeling…

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Alfred Soto: Once upon a time a producer and his 808s could hire a robust singer to write some lyrics over a spare, rubbery track. The Canadian Kiesza is part of this tradition (she’s also covered Haddaway’s “What is Love”). The hysterical “My love, there’s no escaping you” with a scatting male voice, the insinuating loop — “Giant in My Heart” could thump for sixteen more minutes. It reminded me of a Greil Marcus line about Neil Tennant: itt’s anonymous–like all the best early punk voices.
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Mallory O’Donnell: “Hideaway” is one of the year’s great surprise singles, so it’s only natural that “Giant” would feel like something of a retread. The fact that it actually sounds like a retread is neither here nor there, because the things that are the same — percolating bleeps, a 90’s house bassline, unctuous diva moves — are the things we can never have too much of. The things that are different are less easy to define. A sense of space, an ease and gracefulness in the transitions between downtempo and midtempo, a greater freedom in Kiesza’s vocal line. Submit to her exhilarating recitation of “my love” (the two deepest words deep house can offer) between 3:30 and 3:44 and you might find yourself wondering why there aren’t a thousand more songs like this and a hundred more singers.
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Katherine St Asaph: It probably doesn’t help that I can’t read “Giant in My Heart” without thinking of Into the Woods, but I’m a little disillusioned with Kiesza. With “Hideaway” it was the the too-fast-too-inevitable locking into place of promos and fashion deals and rapturous copy that rising artists are lucky/unlucky enough to get, and the cabbing-it-to-Condo-Williamsburg video, but at least with “Giant in My Heart” it’s the song, specifically the vocals. Between American Idol and Auto-Tune and purists who gripe about singers (and pop, the horror) on dance music you’d be excused for thinking just anyone can cut a passable vocal, but it’s hard to get right. If FKA Twigs is too studied, Kiesza is too sloppy; the hook features some of the worst vocals I’ve ever heard on a professional single. How the hell did this get released? Were all the other takes even worse?
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Will Adams: The dynamic vocal of “Hideaway” is a world away from “Giant in My Heart,” in which Kiesza belts and belts without any respect for the smooth track behind her. 
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Scott Mildenhall: This is literally not “Hideaway”. That’s as unavoidable as “Hideaway” itself, unfortunately, though such a gearshift could be the best move as a result. In a song less ebullient Kiesza’s All Star Tribute To Shakira vocals often border irritating, but when she thinks better of belting (accompanied by standard issue Bluesy Manvocal) she hits the disco catharsis button like Geoff Capes on a high striker.
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Jer Fairall: Her voice suits her surroundings, a low-key house production whose minimalist confines allow her just enough room to slither around them as a wordless backing vocal hook pings back and forth, monotonously and even cruelly taunting Kiesza’s lovelorn plaints. Something’s missing, though–a sense of release, perhaps? 
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Brad Shoup: The unwords are being turned out by a dude this go-round, but we already know how good Kiesza is at this sort of thing. When she gets on a “my love” kick, the sounds warp and lose shape. The percussion hits more precisely, the synths are muted, and Kiesza has the too-good manners to recede accordingly, with the aforementioned exception.
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Anthony Easton: Classical and folk training are flexible enough and cause one to know what one’s instrument is, which means that they can be slotted into whatever production you are working on. Like “Hideaway,” the training is front and center here, as is the barely controlled hysterical underpinnings. Maybe it’s because she is Canadian, or maybe it is the skill of her formal choices, but I am cheering Kiesza on. 
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