The Singles Jukebox

Never mind the sales figures, we still love her — well, sort of…

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[6.57]

Jonathan Bogart: There aren’t enough musicians today picking up the cues that Annie Lennox left all over the 80s and 90s. This is a good start.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: Shall we just pretend this pulsating near-masterwork, which is both expansive and booty-shaking and kind of tense and scary at the same time, is Lady Gaga’s new single? Yes, let’s.
[9]

Scott Mildenhall: Different bits of this sound like lots of different things: Vitalic, “Play” by Jennifer Lopez, Roisin Murphy’s “Overpowered”, the Knight Rider theme; and with VV doing her best scary new wave voice over the top, it comes to recall Lulu James and Planningtorock to certain degrees. More importantly though, it makes it a very good song.
[8]

Alfred Soto: The blurred desperation of her voice fits this permutating dance track. Diddy, please try to hire Brown for the Last Train to Paris sequel.
[7]

Anthony Easton: At first I was frustrated by the production overwhelming her voice, but the reveals, the masking and unmasking, the way her voice and the production are actually curving around each other — this shifts and changes in ways that suggest a kind of suspicious hospitality.
[7]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Like Torrini, a returning VV Brown delivers high drama, her music pointedly darker hued almost so to acknowledge her absence from mainstream music. And like Torrini, this turn finds her music — and voice! — drained of any colour whatsoever. There’s sporadic zest when the production lifts, allowing some space for her voice to rise out of the murkiness. Here, the promise of her abandoned second LP arises, but it’s quickly dashed. “The Apple” strikes for artful melancholy but can’t work past glum tedium.
[4]

Brad Shoup: It’s disappointing to learn that the title is shorthand for “the apple of my eye”. Apples offer so much for songwriters! Plus, there’s all that fiber and niacin and potassium and vitamins. Plus, they’re super fun to throw, and we desperately need more songs about kineticism. (Except for dancing — we’re good.) This showcases a miserably repetitive vocal melody and cadence, nested in today’s icy New New Wave: a total crabapple.
[4]