B.o.B ft. Taylor Swift – Both Of Us
That’s the punchline.
[Video][Website]
[3.00]
Iain Mew: This is going to have one of those videos where it’s really obvious that the two people were never actually even in the same state, right?
[3]
Brad Shoup: “The song has so far been acclaimed by critics especially Swift’s part with some calling the country-rap collaboration as a sweet and melodious catchy song.[citation needed]”
[1]
Katherine St Asaph: When this limp wad of tissue leaked, I couldn’t imagine who or what it was for. Eventually I managed twelve languid occasions it might soundtrack, but now that it’s charting, I guess the world’s outdone me. So here’s suggestion No. 13: weeping listlessly in careful slo-mo while smearing the snot and tears all over fancy studio gadgetry and endorsement contracts. That one’s for B.o.B.
[1]
Anthony Easton: The juxtaposition of the placid female yearning and the rugged masculine anger has been done, and even if it were novel, the gender politics sort of negate the explicit politics of the stated lyrics.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Swift is strong enough for both of them but she could use more help than B.o.B. provides. Who thought this unholy grafting of styles would work?
[4]
Ramzi Awn: I can already see the BEP-tinged glare of my transistor radio in the summer sun. And who wouldn’t understand wanting to be strong enough for both the people in a relationship? Unfortunately, as dependable as her delivery is, Swift isn’t quite strong enough to lift “Both Of Us” out of Disneyland mediocrity.
[5]
Alex Ostroff: Taylor’s fragile inspirational finger-picking and B.o.B’s rapping meld surprisingly well, but never really take flight the way they need to for me to fall for this post-“Sing for the Moment” vaguely-morose-persistence-rap ft. A Pretty Girl Who Does Not Traditionally Do Hip Hop. The most important question is whether that shockingly functional buzz during B.o.B’s verses is a guitar or the whir of dubstep, and which, in my heart of hearts, I would prefer it to be.
[5]
Jonathan Bradley: “Both Of Us” is, first and foremost, a failure to understand the appeal of Taylor Swift. Bobby Ray parachutes a (perfectly serviceable) hook from the country singer into his song as if the wispy prettiness of her melody were an incantation capable of activating her fanbase and delivering one more demographic for B.o.B to triangulate with. It’s the same approach he took with Weezer fans and the execrable “Magic,” but Rivers Cuomo has been creatively moribund for so long that the song seemed merely awful rather than cynical. It’s not that B.o.B’s hybrids are intrinsically bad: it’s that he approaches them without any understanding of the musical forms he wants to incorporate, and that he abandons anything pleasurable about rap music in the process of his assimilation. “Both of Us” has none of Swift’s careful details and universal specificity, and neither has it any of hip-hop’s careful details and universal specificity. It neither swells nor swings. Even Swift’s T-Swizzle sketch was more organic, but, the thing is, Taylor has long understood how to marry her sound with hip-hop. She’s performed “Lose Yourself” live for at least half a decade. This collaboration isn’t as transgressive as B.o.B thinks and there’s no reason it should be this awkward.
[2]
I don’t see the problem. I like this quite a bit.
“Bobby Ray parachutes a (perfectly serviceable) hook from the country singer into his song as if the wispy prettiness of her melody were an incantation capable of activating her fanbase and delivering one more demographic for B.o.B to triangulate with.”
DING DING DING. This exists because of a meeting someplace where a Facebook-friend count was invoked.
Nah, even at its best – i.e. the times it doesn’t remind me of “Price Tag” – it’s mediocre. Taylor’s part is pretty but Jonathan hit the nail on the head; if I didn’t know better I would have thought it was Skylar Grey singing.