The Singles Jukebox

Ooh, haven’t they grown…

[Video][Myspace]
[4.75]

Rodney J. Greene: All that defending I did of “Apologize” by OneRepublic, I’d like to rescind it.
[3]

Jessica Popper: The last I’d heard (a few years ago) was that Blazin’ Squad were carrying on without any of the popular members, so I was vaguely amused but not at all intrigued when I heard that they had actually managed to release a single. What I didn’t know was that this was yet another formation of Blazin’ Squad, this time only with the popular members. I don’t know how many Blazin’ Squad fans are left over from the early 00s, but this song fits in perfectly alongside current UK R&B artists like Taio Cruz and N-Dubz, so I think they’ve got a great chance at a comeback.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: My theory is that this song was written for the 5ive reunion, but when that fell through they rounded up Blazin’ Squad members from the dole queue and reunited them. But somehow, it works, it’s like 25% “Apologize”, 25% Leona Lewis ballad, 25% Ne-Yo and 25% of the biggest, wussiest, sappiest ballad you love unreservedly. I’m not a big fan of the vocoder, but otherwise, this is far better than it has any right to be. The “you don’t see what I SEE GIRL” bit is perfect. I’m sorry, I have something in my eye right now…
[9]

Jonathan Bradley: Nothing undercuts perfectly good bombast like lame British boy-band rapping.
[3]

Michaelangelo Matos: Digital soft-focus now means Autotune. Great.
[3]

Tom Ewing: A five year old could see the subtext in this one. Similarly humbled pleas worked for Take That, but then they’d inspired genuine raging puppy lust for a three year stretch, not had one big hit with a Bone Thugs cover. Also they didn’t rest their comeback on a particularly whining application of Autotune. If “Let’s Start Again” was the compulsory ballad release from a hit album, it would be tiresome but tolerable. As it is, more sad than bad.
[3]

Ian Mathers: The Autotuning is a bit annoying (okay, annoying enough to cost a point), but mostly this reminds me of Taio Cruz’s great, great “Moving On,” albeit with half-shit rapping and a completely opposite message. Still mostly genius, though. It might help that I neither know nor care much about the group’s history – and really, can’t the titular plea be directed at the listening public as much as their ex?
[8]

Martin Skidmore: One single in the last five years: have you missed them? It’s a slow jam with heavily autotuned backing and the boys rapping and singing over the top. It sounds rather like whining much of the time, nasal and clumsy, lacking in any of the beauty, romance and seduction the song demands. Chav culture has an infinitely better representative now in the Blackout Crew.
[2]