The Singles Jukebox

From France to Chile to the UAE, we’re racking up those frequent flyer miles today…

[Video][Website]
[5.83]

Alfred Soto: I could believe the vocal and the backing track were recorded several thousand miles away, but this doesn’t signify as distance — it means this Emirati singer’s interacting with the percussion in a way that accentuates the production’s modern touches.
[7]

Katie Gill: That skipping beat is so obnoxiously abrupt that it distracts from Ahlam’s wonderful vocals. The fact that the sort of skipping effect is applied to the backing vocals as well is almost criminal. It’s the overall effect of putting a scratched CD in the CD player for the first time in ages: acceptable if you’re doing some sort of “made in my basement” indie remix, but totally unacceptable for a big budget pop song.
[3]

Iain Mew: I’m enchanted by the way that the beat never seems perfectly in step with anything else. Its jerky momentum had me wondering if I was having buffering issues on first listen, but since induces a rapt concentration tinged with uncertainty which lets the twisting high strings creep up and please me anew each time.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: Trips along at its own dozen distinct paces; I’m just relieved to hear a backing track that achieves the effect without the cliches (pitch-shifting, snippetizing, glitchizing, things that sound like Flume).
[5]

Will Adams: My ears are so accustomed to the perfect quantization of modern pop that something like “Talqah” can hold my attention on the basis of its rhythm section alone. Without that, I probably wouldn’t give it repeat spins, but it’s captivating enough to spend the extra time to try and wrap my head around it.
[5]

Tim de Reuse: Dance music tropes layered onto a disorienting 3/4 rhythm that seems to endlessly cut itself off, tumbling too quickly to catch its breath, buoyed by an overproduced vocal that weaves and bobs around the already overenthusiastic instrumental. It mesmerizes effectively, but it’s also a little exhausting.
[7]