The Singles Jukebox

Australia gets nostalgic too…

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[7.29]

Jonathan Bradley: Catcall remembers that new wave was birthed from punk rock, and “The World is Ours” comes off as “Teenage Kicks” with added synths. Coming on the heels of similarly electronic-driven singles over the past decade by Cut Copy, Van She, Sneaky Sound System, and Muscles, Catcall is a pleasing indicator that Australia might have a future in which electro-pop is considered as native a genre as pub rock. And “The World is Ours” is deliberately constructed to sound like the start of something big: the hook screams “you ready?” and the song concludes before the band gets around to explaining exactly what we’re preparing ourselves for. Consider my appetite whet.
[9]

Alfred Soto: Hooking up teenage absolutism to modern rock guitars sends off just the right sparks, especially with cheerleading chants as counterpoint. The best part is Catcall not ceding an inch to ambiguity: no dread darkens this track, just an assurance as committed as the relationship itself.
[7]

Brad Shoup: I love the way they’ve warped the countdown motif, like they’re trying to get someone to jump into the quarry before everyone else. Emotionally, it’s all on a plain, which is fine for road trips but a little exhausting otherwise. I hear pride but not triumph, shine but not jangle. Maybe I wish this were more deconstructed or something. Will start writing my apology in case this bowls me over in a month.
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: I think my reluctance to embrace this song is due more to a failure of imagination on my part than anything wrong with it — I prefer lady-sung aggressive pop to be either wholly aggressive or so subtle about its aggression that someone who isn’t paying attention can miss. But aggression, like any human form of expression, can easily coexist with prettiness, nostalgia, or vaguely inspiring sentiment; that I’d slide more comfortably into the juxtaposition if it were a man singing is entirely my problem.
[7]

Anthony Easton: The place where homosocial sentimentality triumphs over a kind of heterosexuality that is mostly about conquering women is not really new, though the chorus here is a little more catchy than other examples. This will be played in every after-prom going-away-to-college party, where that tension is most explicit.
[4]

Iain Mew: When it comes roaring out with its rush of an intro, you wonder what it could possibly be leading up to. The answer, pleasingly, is that it rides that same wave of euphoria for its entire length.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: Those few pristine seconds after verse two are my favorite seconds so far in music this year. They’re like catching a breeze and a wave and someone’s eyes all at once, or getting ready to dive into a pool and a freeze frame. Or perhaps they’re like air shimmering above a blacktop, the sort that makes the grass and sky around it look more surreal and perfect. No matter how many hundreds of times I hear this — many by now, and probably many more considering the track’s been disseminated beyond the 19-year-old’s playlist where I found it — it’ll always get me. I want every summer to feel like this.
[10]