The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

Hayley Kiyoko – Curious

Sure, we’ll go steady with you, Hayley.


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[6.62]

Alex Clifton: “Curious” suffers from mediocre, slurred verses (“I need a drink, whiskey ain’t my thing/But shit is all good” doesn’t do a lot to set the scene), but I can forgive those sins for the phenomenal chorus. It’s giddy and breathless, especially the way she sings the Santa Monica line: in those five seconds, we suddenly have a picture of their entire relationship. I am annoyed by the implications of the Confused Bisexual who can’t make up her mind between her current boyfriend and her former girlfriend, mostly because I thought Lesbian Jesus could do better than that, but this is still fun. I know how hard Kiyoko has fought over the years for every female pronoun in her song, and I hope she continues that fight.
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Micha Cavaseno: Kiyoko’s return to making girls the center of desire for other girls is hardly the worst brand in the world to pursue. But at the end of the day, a big problem is that the intent to make songs about that rises to the top while the notion of crafting good songs falls way by the wayside. Production-wise this feels like a poppy-turn on RnBass a few years too late, and that double-time bit on the chorus is an unlistenable blur of Kiyoko’s feathery tone blurred like it got chopped up in fan blades. Beyond her preferences of whom to pursue and be pursued by, I’m struggling to see what makes Kiyoko stand out in the current pop climate.
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Alfred Soto: A fingerpoppin’ rewrite of “When U Were Mine” in which Hayley Kikoko replaces paranoia with lust and, shrewdly, fuses paranoia and lust: the stronger her suspicions about what her lover is up to, the more lubricious the music. Points for being the first song of which I’m aware that mentions the Santa Monica Pier.
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Katherine St Asaph: Both appealingly and frustratingly half-formed. The repeated-last-words trick is cool, but I’ve heard it before (damned if I can remember where, though.) The double-time Santa Monica line is great and not something I’ve heard before, but loses its power upon repetition; it’d be better if the last one were changed, or escalated, or something. Surely the narrator found more on her Instagram than that one pier pic?
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Stephen Eisermann: As if the stylistic choices made with the beat weren’t interesting enough, the lyrical content is awesome. The chorus is catchy both because of how much of an earworm it is and also because how engaging the story is. Poor Hayley likes and is liked by a girl, either too confused about her sexuality or too unwilling to commit to being with a girl, but the girl remains with her boyfriend despite constantly reaching back out to Hayley. The song teeters on petty, but honestly who wouldn’t be a bit hostile towards someone who has effectively played them and wants to continue playing them? Also, the way that Hayley sings the Santa Monia lyric in the chorus is perfect and I’ll hear no opinions that claim otherwise.
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Will Adams: I love when pop is this tightly wound, as if it’s one twist away from completely snapping. Sonically, it’s “Work From Home” with the screws fastened down even harder, but the chorus is the root of it all. Hovering on the same note but alternating between a pendulum-like repetition and rapid-fire sixteenths, Hayley Kiyoko simultaneously lures in the object of her desire while pushing her away. In the face of the heart-sinking feeling of seeing the one you want captured with someone else in glossy Instagram photos, her self-assuredness is the true weapon here.
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Edward Okulicz: It’s as tense as a rubber band stretched to its fullest, and it burrows into your head without bashing you over it first. So that means it’s effective and subtle as a groove, but the chorus is a straight knock-out, one extended monster rhythmic and melodic hook you want to put on repeat. You could imagine this as being either a 00s Britney cut, or a further exploration of the territory last traversed by Little Mix on “Touch.”
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Alex Ostroff: A few years ago, I wrote, “I don’t want well-meaning political anthems or pity; I want more people hearing engaging, intelligent, desperate, emotional, angry, frustrated, happy queer voices writing damn good pop songs.” After gritting my teeth through the Great Gay-Pander-Off and Macklemore, this well-executed lesbian take on a typical ‘my ex found someone new’ pop narrative is exactly that. Sure, the beat is standard post-MustardWave, and the first verse opens with a hell of a clunker, but “Curious” is all about its impeccably-constructed chorus. It kicks off with repeated touchyas and usedtas, then uses double-time patter to build momentum into an emphatically punctuated final couplet. It’s a great trick, and my first great pop moment of the year is the rush of “takehimtothepierinSantaMonicaforgettobringajacketwrapupinhimcauseyouwantedta?“. And as for that couplet? “I’m just curious / Is it serious?” cheekily subverts the titular adjective that’s too often deployed to undermine queer women’s sexuality. There’s nothing ambiguous or uncertain about Kiyoko’s interest. Might I be overrating this? I doubt it. It won’t replace”‘When U Were Mine” or “Dancing On My Own,”, but it rewrites the latter as queer more successfully than Calum Scott’s cover, and I’ve been listening to it compulsively for two weeks straight gay. 
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