Charlie Puth – One Call Away
As we one-liner away…
[Video][Website]
[2.67]
John Seroff: Following up the worst song of 2015 with more market-tested, Proactiv-scoured, square-jawed flotsam, “One Call Away” is pretty much what I expected when I hit play, but the “why doesn’t she want a nice guy who can play the piano?” video (with explicit princess saving!) adds an unwelcome sheen of regressive creepy to what would otherwise have been too weightless to properly hate. “Regressive creepy” is developing into as much a part of The Puth’s™ branding as those throwback nu-NKOTB eyebrows; I look forward to seeing Charlie star as “the sensitive one” in the 2019 reboot of Porky’s.
[2]
Scott Mildenhall: It’s all too easy to be dismissive of a song like this.
[3]
Patrick St. Michel: Look, it isn’t “Marvin Gaye” or anything resembling “Marvin Gaye,” that’s worth two points on its own.
[4]
Brad Shoup: People lost their minds when Nick Jonas walked into a gospel rehearsal on a personal Casual Friday: let’s give the people what they want. Rarely has a show of strength simpered so much: a limp drum track, a half-realized string section, and Puth. This song is so white-knight Game of Thrones just killed it off.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: Charlie Puth: the chastity belt of pop music.
[1]
Katherine St Asaph: He’s sure cornered the “mediocre high school player tenor” market, hasn’t he?
[3]
Will Adams: The “I’ll be there for you” concept has consistently resulted in music that punches straight to my core and brings tears to my eyes, but I’ve never heard it so poorly deployed as on “One Call Away.” Never mind the gray sludge of Hot AC production girding it, Puth sounds like he’s piddling himself at the possibility of you calling him up, to the point where I suspect he’s secretly hoping something bad happens to you so he can swoop in for the save.
[3]
Jonathan Bogart: When you photocopy “Lean On Me” at varying resolutions enough times, eventually it looks like something different.
[2]
David Sheffieck: Somehow a whinier, more risible use of a Superman metaphor than Three Doors Down’s “Kryptonite”. And anyway, isn’t Batman the one with the phone?
[2]
(In truth I actually find really hard – even hate – to be as dismissive as this. But I have given careful consideration to the song, and my conclusion is that I really do find it quite bad.)
i had never heard this but it’s truly the worst shit ever