The Singles Jukebox

“I Belong In Your Arms” still outscores and out-loves it.

[Video][Website]
[7.22]

Edward Okulicz: Two things: Firstly, I Belong In Your Arms” is a once-in-a-lifetime pop masterstroke. Secondly, Chairlift build emotion with unsubtle, obvious building blocks. I don’t mean either of those as a bad thing, “Crying In Public” is like they’ve found a second lifetime, a second calling. Caroline Polachek’s giddily nervous energy is as perfectly suited to crying quietly as it is to euphoria so great it makes you almost shed a tear. Her rhythmic tapping and scratching at the words is evocative and relatable. And yes, the chorus is a killer, it’s just one that sneaks up on you. End result is that I’m just as dead as I was after hearing “Arms.”
[9]

Lauren Gilbert: I didn’t have to look up where Chairlift were from; the breakdancing boys and trains placed this song squarely in New York.  This is a very specific set of circumstances, born out of shared spaces and the lack of privacy that come with big city life.  Do people living in suburbia end up crying in public, or is that solely a feature of urban life?  God only knows I’ve cried enough in doctor’s offices to find this theme compelling, but I don’t think it much affects the success of the song. Polachek has vocal talent to spare, and could sell something far less relatable than being suddenly overwhelmed with your own feelings.
[9]

Cassy Gress: There’s a stark honesty here not altogether foreign to me that nonetheless feels distant. The cynic in me points to the lyrics about being an empty peach half as cloying and demonstrating a malformed self-identity; at the same time, I recognize the feeling of needing endlessly more of someone. I then pick at the parentheticals and conversational lines as sounding too much like a diary, but when you’re newly in love, don’t you mostly just replay the same words and gestures in your head anyway, trying to mold monuments from memory? In the fade out, I’m torn about whether those ahs sound euphoric or like someone is punching her in the diaphragm. The comparatively electronic-sounding “love will be the bridge” parts are the only bits I’m not arguing with myself about, and that’s only because all sides of me agree that they’re unnecessary.
[8]

Alfred Soto: Cowriting with Beyonce has done wonders for Caroline Polachek’s rhythmic sense. “Crying in Public” has almost as much pathos as “Jealous.” When she sings at the high end of her register to harmonize with the synths it works. She’s crying in public because college kids don’t notice R&B moves.
[7]

Micha Cavaseno: Lyrically I can’t make head nor tail of this, but musically this band just gets it right. There’s a lounge quality to the verse sections and the bridges after the second chorus; as brief as it is, it’s got a weird way to fall between gravity. Its perfectly content, and possibly to the point of earning contempt. That said, all this talk of boom boxes and tough guys is, er, not the wave.
[6]

Will Adams: My lasting impression of Chairlift remains one of politeness. Even before this seeming move into smooth jazz sheen, I found their much loved “I Belong In Your Arms” pleasant but hollow. Polachek’s vocal on the chorus is glorious, the kind of pathos I wish I could hear in the rest of their work, but aside from that “Crying in Public” is impenetrable.
[5]

Iain Mew: I love the return of the synth sounds like marbles being swirled around in a tin can from “Wrong Opinion” with their pleasurable combination of melody and percussion. They’re only there once at the start, but feel significant; it’s that sort of song. Every tiny gesture takes on greater importance in the company of the overwhelming swoon of the chorus, restraint telling its own tale of attempting to contain the uncontainable.
[8]

Danilo Bortoli: Before anything else, it is interesting to see how Chairlift have changed their craft. In Moth, they sound more embodied, more complete. Their music has always hinted at a very specific notion of “perfect pop,<” but on their second album they seem to realize there are some impracticalities in that idea — perfection is not always the best way to handle things. This is why “Crying in Public” is their most down-to-earth love song: structurally perfect, as their work has ever been, but with tensions in the lyrics. This is a game of contrasts, of course, as the sparkly production is matched by the narrative: Caroline Polachek’s feelings are hard to exactly pinpoint — she’s far from breaking down yet hopeful. In the end, “Crying in Public” strives to reconstruct the sensation of being taken by love — not exactly contemplation, hardly only blind passion. A sensation which is a mixture of those things and, more often than not, the realization brought by getting back to earth. A rather mundane sentiment after all made magical by “Crying in Public.”
[9]

Thomas Inskeep: I like the way the rhythm trips around the intro and verses, but the plain-jane chorus undoes a chunk of that goodwill, as does Caroline Polachek’s vocal. Julia Fordham or Basia could’ve taken this to more interesting places, in more interesting directions.
[4]