The Singles Jukebox

You don’t need to tell us twice…

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Alfred Soto: The sumptuousness of the arrangement is its own reward: the piano, that sampled string-spring, a marimba that bounces off the percussion. Atop is Bucie, honoring the title with a vocal that communicates fuss-free ebullience.
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: I’ve been a fan of Bucie, South Africa’s great house diva, for several years now, but producers Black Motion are new to me, and I love their slow-burn Afrohouse sound. (Because of where my head is at historically, I’m hearing the piano here as an echo of marabi, but of course that’s no more the case than US house piano is an echo of boogie-woogie.) Their collaboration is a slow-motion epic of romantic devotion, giving Bucie’s performance the space it needs to explode.
[8]

Iain Mew: Both the style and Bucie’s voice make me think of Katy B, but “Rejoice” is more sprawling than she’s ever gone. There’s a bit of slack in its five minutes, but that’s compensated by added, unpredictable power, especially in the reverberating twists on its string riff and when Bucie gets to really let loose.
[7]

Will Adams: Between the minor key house framing and palpable yearning in Bucie’s vocal, “Rejoice” very much reminds me of Katy B, so that’s all the convincing I need. At times the extended instrumental portions seem like they hog the run time, at others they seem like the ideal opportunity to get lost in dance.
[7]

Ryo Miyauchi: The unsettling loop makes the song hard to breathe, and that’s before Bucie lays her heart down. She sings of a cruel cycle of love like the tail-chasing beat. From her voice that sinks deep into thought, as well as the fading mentions of “never gonna let you go,” her relationship sounds suffocating in its closeness as it is fulfilling. It can sway either way, and how she dances in that undefined middle draws me close to see if it will all fall apart or if she will find some way to let the tension to resolve.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: I wracked my brains for hours trying to work out who Bucie sounded like and… Siobhan Donaghy? Or that her single voice sounds like an Sugababes harmonies? Either way, hers would be a terrific voice for any kind of house track, even one as low-key as this. Titling it “Rejoice” feels bitterly ironic, but I like my dance music to choke back the tears with irony from time to time.
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: If ever a title was a red herring, it’s this one. It’s not that this is a profoundly negative record, it’s just that it is in no way joyful, instead exploring expanses of conflict right up to its contradictory conclusion. With that incessant, hammered twinkling it’s also, in the best possible way, like remixed game show music. “Rejoice”‘s pained, danceable tension surpasses even the Tipping Point theme tune.
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