Lately, we’ve been giving [6.00] to post-punk…
[Video]
[6.00]
Iain Mew: It’s synth pop! But wait, listen from this different angle, and it’s pop punk! So when they resolve it straightforwardly for the chorus it’s a disappointment, and also really leaves me wanting to hear the full pop punk version.
[5]
Ian Mathers: The nervy indie rock bits of this aren’t super successful; the track immediately kicks up a bit when the brighter synth sounds pop up, especially during that outro. Are you in trouble if the best, most memorable part of your single is the instrumental outro? I mean, maybe.
[6]
Alfred Soto: For fans pining for Bloc Party with Killers synths.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: There’s a scene in Sister Act where Whoopi Goldberg’s lounge-singer-turned-nun hears one of the abbey’s unengaged choristers sing a particularly limp note and practically wrings a supported vocal out of her chest: “We call that an A with an attitude!” I think of this every time I hear a song like “Lately”: a seething power-pop track that would be great if it didn’t have the wimpiest possible vocal. That, and if the “she’d call me her cuz” joke (…it is a joke, right?) landed, and didn’t seem like unintentional bad phrasing.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: Finally, Joseph Mount’s metamorphosis into Juvelen is complete. His vocals here are all scratchy, spiky and squeaky, crawling over the top of the song and so close to the ear that they override the question of precisely what and who he’s talking about. Is he thinking of Bloc Party or is he thinking of Unicorn Kid? The lack of clear direction makes it hard to tell, but he just about holds it together.
[7]
Will Adams: Initially a build-up of nervous energy made of equal parts power-pop chug and eerie synth lines that collapses into a plod of a chorus where syllables are let out in slow drips (“late-ly-I’ll-call-you”), only to explode in a whir of synths and guitars and skittering drums. It’s a neat trick that captures the stop-start feeling of waiting on that one to call, wondering if you should be the one to call, and ultimately fretting for eternity.
[8]
Iris Xie: “Lately” sounds like if Metronomy wired Whack-A-Mole into a band setup. Somehow though, against the backdrop of its fluorescent synthwork and power-pop groove and those rocky guitars, the vocals are hard and sparse and renders this song into a perfunctory dirge. It’s curious that it is a single though, since it sounds like the too-short track before the climax of the album.
[6]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Thank god for the weirdness of the tempo here– it feels like the band is playing everything slightly faster than they told Joseph Mount they were going to go, and he’s playing catch-up. Other than that manic pace, though, this is just another piece of new-wave leaning indie rock that I assume I’ll be hearing in coffee shops and upscale grocery stores for the next five years or so.
[5]
Hannah Jocelyn: “Lately” is alternately: a slightly unsettling dream-synth dirge designed to stand out on Indie Chillout playlists, a pop-punk/indie-rock crossover for fans of sixteenth-note muted guitar strums, and a manic, sparsely populated drum-‘n’-bass-leaning banger. All those descriptions had some nice moments, but were all overwrought, occasionally cringeworthy, and muddled when struggling to co-exist.
[5]