Nina Sky – Day Dreaming
Not an Aretha cover, nor Akon…
[Video][Website]
[5.70]
Katherine St Asaph: “Hello. We are Nina Sky. You vaguely remember us, correct? Either way, we’ve since listened to chillwave and ‘I’m On One.’ Please blog about us again.”
[7]
Brad Shoup: More like Awesome Percussion ft. Nina Sky.
[4]
Andrew Casillas: It’s a tad disappointing that they follow up their CREEP collaboration by pretending that 2006-2011 never happened, but this kind of lite 2-step/R&B is fine regardless. Nina Sky’s cool, hushed harmonies are still their best asset by far, but hopefully next time they’ll do something a little more forward-thinking musically beyond snap sounds.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Nina Sky remember to exaggerate the importance of tongue clicks, organs, ahh-ahhs, and the kind of beat Ginuwine would have loved in 1997.
[5]
Michaela Drapes: In her impenetrable underground fortress in an undisclosed location, Robyn is concerned.
[8]
Pete Baran: There are two things going on here that sadly do not mesh. Nina Sky sing a pleasant enough song that has too much vocal manipulation in it for me to get a sense of any song coalescing. Which is fine, as the backing’s spare beats and electronic fun ought to make up for it. But it is too sparse: not enough dance to dance to, not enough song to enjoy.
[4]
Jer Fairall: Painstakingly tasteful coffeehouse electronica, spinning through an amiable pattern of shuffles and clicks with pleasing agility, but austere to the point of bloodless and restrained to the point of repression.
[4]
Iain Mew: “Day Dreaming” is appropriately easy to get lost in and drift along with, and it’s exquisite in places. The breaths as percussion are a gorgeous touch, and the title phrase gets stretched and softened and hardened until it takes on a life of its own. Without anything to anchor its drifting, though, it’s also frustratingly inconsequential, more production showcase than song.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: This has been in regular rotation in my “2012” playlist on my phone, and every time it comes up I struggle to remember which one it is. I want to like Nina Sky, but they keep making it hard.
[6]
John Seroff: A brief discussion broke out on the “King of Hearts” comment thread regarding Cassie’s anonymity and the meaning behind her positive critical consensus: is it because of or in spite of her “blankness”? A litmus test for us Jukeboxers may well be how we respond collectively to a slightly superior cut that skews darker and less disco but also comes with a boatload of personality. “Day Dreaming” is more meaty than “Hearts”, more seductive and expends more productive energy getting to the finish line. I’m confident the record will reflect we chose wisely.
[8]
good find, John
So to play off the didacticism of my blurb: why did those of you who voted Cassie higher than Nina Sky do so? “I liked that song better” is a valid response but I’m curious why.
Speaking strictly for myself, because the Cassie has structure and a melody I can remember five minutes after I stop listening to it.
For me they’re both in the amorphous 6.5-8 “this goes on my iPod but whatever” zone where on one day they could be scored differently. So: sampling error.
Fear of identical twins.
I think “King of Hearts” > this, though I’d argue that Cassie is actually not blank there, which is a separate issue. “Day Dreaming” didn’t grab me because of a) its non-melody and b) stale Timbaland-esque beatbox percussion.
Hi. I underrated the shit out of this. It is a [9].
Haven’t given this track enough attention; I rated their Creep collab, “You,” highly last year, but in general am disappointed by Nina Sky. Though they and Cassie are atmospheric, their atmosphere is elusive and austere (is that an oxymoron? not sure) while Cassie’s is sexy. And how do you describe that difference? Cassie’s air says come to me, there’s motion in her, even if it’s a movement that invites you to follow rather than one that runs to you. And I melt, always.
Giving “Day Dreaming” another chance, it still sounds sluggish, especially the two sisters in the center. Maybe someday I’ll have a “Eureka!” moment with it, but right now it’s art on the wall, not sound in my life.
(And Cassie is the opposite of anonymous, for me. She always sounds like Cassie, never like those recluses, Anon and Trad.)
Well, I’d recommend listening to it on the bus and timing it so the string section comes in right after you’re going over the Triborough Bridge, but that’d mean I’m being NYC-centric.