Pouring Taylor on gasoline…

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[6.36]

Vikram Joseph: It’s hard to deny that releasing this barely altered version of the original is a convenient promo boost for an album that came out the better part of a year ago, but my god is this still a gorgeous song. One of the high-water marks of Women Ii Music Pt. III, “Gasoline” feels like flying business class in a 787, floating above the clouds without any energy expended, weightless and full of possibility. The middle eight is one of the best examples on the album of Rostam Batmanglij’s sparse, beautifully textured electronics; Taylor sprinkles a few gold-dust backing vocals over it, but this was a class act already.
[8]

John Seroff: WiMPIII was one of the best albums of a bad year for living and a good year for music. “Gasoline” is among its highlights, a neatly crafted wistful gem evoking convertible weather and dark nostalgia. I regret to inform that Taylor doesn’t add anything more to the mix than a layer of unnecessary icing, mostly fading into the wallpaper but occasionally distracting with superfluous harmony. Is it enough to make me dock the score on a song I otherwise enjoy? Not really but, if I have any choice in the matter going forward, I’ll stick with the original.
[7]

Michael Hong: The original was a lazy fuck in the heat of a Sunday morning. It was all about someone else’s pleasure while you held back, wanting more but fearing that every step you take forward would be met with fifteen backward. The remix is your friend busting out the tequila and karaoke, not really getting it but still trying so hard, you guys, she’s trying so hard.
[3]

Leah Isobel: Taylor’s confident star power makes her declarative approach to the lyrics sort of funny, but also sort of a relief; the way she yelps “I get sad!!” stands in stark contrast with Danielle Haim’s earthier, more ambivalent tone. As a result, Danielle’s slide into morose hedonism on the bridge feels both more abrupt and more damning. She looks past the sunrise to the person in between her legs, bluntly concluding “it doesn’t matter,” and you get the sense that the “it” that doesn’t matter grows up and out until it encircles everything. I don’t think this is much better or worse than the album version; I relate to both.
[7]

Alex Clifton: All of my points here are for Taylor singing “you needed ass,” because I never knew I needed that in my life until now. 
[7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Yes, of course it is very funny that HAIM got Taylor Swift to sing about how you needed ass for a remix of a middling album track. But other than that (and the clearly incongruous vocal mixing on Swift’s lead parts), what’s fun about “Gasoline” is how easily Swift blends into the proceedings. “Gasoline” was already the Swiftiest song on WiMPIII in its lyrical conceits and dragged-on metaphors — bringing Swift herself aboard does nothing in any direction for the song.
[5]

Andrew Karpan: The way Swift wrests the slow jam away from HAIM comes slowly and then all at once, like a layer of sun-colored honey oozing down the song’s spine. First you hear her bright choral affect and then you hear all over, overflowing and overpowering, so immense is the wall of Swift, crashing all over, the eternal English degree sadness of her Folklore-era work. (“I get sad, you know I get sad,” a thought whose vagueness is crisply juxtaposed against the particularity of the original HAIM track but succeeds also in making the song feel more universal and, thus, likeable — an observation about Swift’s work as a whole.)
[6]

Alfred Soto: The score is for the original, a skronky earworm on which the Haim sisters can alternate between wistful and sex-starved. I suppose they needed to recompense Taylor Swift for letting them appear on “No Body, No Crime.”
[9]

Will Adams: At least HAIM’s presence on “No Body No Crime” served a narrative purpose. Here, it’s a favor returned and nothing more. Taylor’s voice is suited for neither Danielle’s melody nor the distortion filter, and the unnecessary backing vocals distract from what was otherwise a highlight of Women In Music Pt. III. I’ll keep some points for the original, a lovely and languid take on radio-rock (the double-tracked vocals are totally “Soak Up the Sun”) that’s equal parts humid and horny, hard as it is to forgive this non-event of a remix.
[4]

Aaron Bergstrom: The original is a slinky if slightly sedated album track, a pretty fair approximation of what a Rostam-produced Sheryl Crow record might sound like (which, inshallah). The remix is… almost exactly the same, with the tiniest flourishes of Taylor around the edges. Everything she touches gets incrementally better (she really sells the “I get sad!” line, and her countermelody on the bridge adds a welcome layer of texture), but that just left me wanting more. If they’re serious about this whole “fourth Haim sister” narrative, then let’s go full Bob Dylan and The Band with it. Write together. Record together. Give us the Basement Tapes!
[7]

Harlan Talib Ockey: This is the song you listen to when you’re in the middle of a messy breakup and all you can do is lie on the floor and watch the daysweeksmonths roll by. The sticky, wah-wah guitar riff blurs into the piano countermelody, which blurs into the filter swirling across the bridge, and it’s Friday or Wednesday or November, I’m not sure anymore. The level of exhaustion with this relationship the Haim sisters convey here is immense — which is fortunate, since Taylor Swift adds nothing on her end. The band claims Swift contributed “new imagery” to this version of “Gasoline,” but this must have been limited to two brief lines in the bridge, because the verse she sings remains entirely unchanged. It’s a shame, too, as it’s the section that could’ve most used a tune-up; compared to the first verse’s incisive cigarette metaphor, her second verse looks upsettingly threadbare. This remix feels more like a debt to a friend or promotion for Evermore than a sincere attempt at teamwork. Surely this could’ve been shaped into a better balanced collaboration with less pressure and more time. Don’t we have time?
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