Danny L Harle ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Super Natural
QUEEN OF IMPROMPTU BACKYARD CONCERTS
[Video][Website]
[6.00]
Hannah Jocelyn: CRJ has built a reputation on being able to record a theme song for Fuller House, make candid comments in Billboard interviews, and release stan-favorite singles with cutesy videos in the same period of time, all while remaining self-aware but not self-conscious. PC Music encompasses most of those angles to an extent, though instead of the balance, there’s that signature smug, emotionless-uncanny-valley aesthetic rarely found in Carly’s music. That discrepancy rears its head here; PC affiliate Danny L Harle seemingly tries to undercut any earnestness she might have in her performance with an overwhelming barrage of typically cheesy jock-jam synths, though charmingly ridiculous lines like “this is easy love/everyday euphoria” and “baby it’s so bananas” manage to connect the two sides of the pop spectrum together. Amazingly, the chipmunk voices help too.
[7]
Will Adams: My well-documented disdain for PC Music and their mission to make stale commentary on pop via demented, unlistenable production has culminated in this: tapping one of my faves for a new song and leading me to believe they’re just trying to fuck with me at this point. The results, however, are just as easy to dispose as most of their catalog. The most “Super Natural” has going for it is that it’s “Wrong Feels So Right” but with slightly less terrible mixing. I initially rated this higher, but the recent release of Emotion: Side B shows that Carly Rae Jepsen is still riding a wave of creating complex and sincere work. It goes without saying that she’s winsome here, but she deserves more than playing along with sardonic takes on trance-pop.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: PC Music’s schtick of “Party Rock Anthem” x Rugrats + contemptful irony was annoying before, and it’s no less annoying with Carly Rae Jepsen, who is so much more than this year’s QT. Jepsen brings a song and personality; Harle photoshops them into a joke and a doll.
[5]
Alfred Soto: I haven’t followed the PC Music controversy or know much about them, but I know that if I were anybody with studio and sequencer access I wouldn’t imprison Carly Rae Jepsen behind rave keyboards and chimes.
[3]
Will Rivitz: It’s been a bit disheartening to see my Twitter timeline — most of which rightfully loved every bit of EMOTION — snarking the PC Music-ness of “Super Natural,” given that Carly Rae Jepsen’s love of spun-sugar bubblegum pop is what got me into Kiss four years ago. Different strokes for different folks, I guess — CRJ is magnetic as always, Danny L Harle is a pop savant as always, and I still maintain that the PC Music camp makes great pop music. Is this what it feels like to be a J. Cole fan on the internet?
[8]
Patrick St. Michel: [huge breath]Carly Rae Jepsen singing over a song created by a guy most associated with PC Music is a perfect fit. Despite being oil and water to many music writers (one being defined by “Call Me Maybe” and the other by a series of question marks to most casual music listeners), both Jepsen and Danny L Harle dabble in maximalism, sonic and emotional. “Super Natural” is a blissful example, Harle’s music skittering about and digitally la-la-ing forward, a busy but never overwhelming compliment to Jepsen’s dizzy lines about “everyday euphoria.” A very basic emotion — time-tested love, the day in and out stuff — gets the IMAX treatment it deserves.
[8]
Scott Mildenhall: If you want to capture the euphoria of something like “L’Amour Toujours” or “The Way” or “Come With Me” or “Shooting Star” or a million other songs vaguely in this ballpark, you could do with being far more melodically dynamic. As those songs prove, you can be relentlessly upbeat and still make time for variation, imagination, and often even sadness. Carly Rae Jepsen’s performance does actually sound like it comes from something more dynamic, but as loud as this wants to be, the energy is slightly flat. Best course of action: swap CRJ for CMC and Danny L Harle for Jurgen Vries.
[6]
Peter Ryan: She’s probably one of the few earthly entities that could make this dude sound the least bit fun and carefree, which, relatively speaking, this is! It’s more of a real song than his past swipes at Actual Pop, and he wisely doesn’t process the vocal within an inch of its life. But “more human” doesn’t cut it, and he’s still a self-proclaimed “fucking cool riff”-aficionado whose squiggling around repeatedly kills any hints at momentum. Plus, CRJ would never loose a lyric this devoid of a solid perspective on her public, not even as a B-side. During a bumper crop of Carly Rae content, it takes a lot to stand out.
[5]
David Sheffieck: Carly Rae Jepsen has somehow managed to release two albums’ worth of material in the past year, and there’s not a dud in the batch. “Super Natural” extends the streak again. Jepsen’s delivery was distinctive from her start, but the earnestness — the near-giddiness — that emanates from her every syllable here is a demonstration of just how well she’s honed her voice since then. She sounds like the sun feels on the first day of summer, and she’s more than enough to make up for any production deficiencies. What do you call an imperial phase completely lacking in commercial success?
[7]
if people dig this Danny L Harle’s solo work is also really, really good (and probably the least “PC Music” of anybody in the camp). Broken Flowers stands out as his best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwpP6gNiIWE
Carly Rae Jepsen’s other stuff is better at being PC Music than PC Music is. Pop isn’t clever, it’s popular. Which is harder to do than being clever.
Yall did too much. This is excellent
Not sure why the assumption that PC Music is “cynical oily satire” or whatever still sticks. Reading most interviews from literally anyone in the collective would inform the unexposed or underexposed that there music is sincere, in the words of A.G. Cook: ‘Everything can get interpreted as satire, in that very cynical way. [..] We take it seriously. This is a big part of our lives. There’s no way that satire could be at the core of anything’. Don’t assume cynicism when there is none.
This track fits in really well with Kiss era Jepsen which is relentlessly overlooked and underrated.
I’ll admit I’ve harped on the cynicism part a lot, but really, my biggest gripe with the whole aesthetic is that I think it just sounds terrible. Kiss is still great but is far better than this (most of it, anyway; see, again, “Wrong Feels So Right”).
1. Maaaaaybe I can see why people would dislike this, BUT in my heart this is a [10]
2. tbh I was expecting a lower score
3. CoolGoodTimes and Will Rivitz are right
4. I can’t wait to see what Carly Rae Jepsen will do on her fourth album (in which, you guessed, danny l harle is actually involved!)
I defy anyone to come up with a non-cynical reading of, say, “So what, or who, is QT? She’s a sparkling future pop sensation — albeit one who is set to warp and stretch the notion of what a pop star actually is. It’s a drink, or more precisely a brand new Energy Elixir.”
the more i read about and listen to PC music the less i understand what it is and what their goals are
idk I never saw QT as being part of PC Music per se (she’s not even on the label I mean), but rather as Hayden Dunham’s performance art project feat. A. G. Cook + SOPHIE (which, to be honest, may have gone too far), so of course the description is going to be pretentious as hell.
Joshua: I think the main ‘goal’ of PC Music is to make music they think sounds good. There’s been a lot of motive ascribed to them as, I dunno, ultra-cynical pop music parody peddlers but the criticism doesn’t hold any weight. They wear their (sincere) influences on their sleeves.
One of A.G. Cook’s standouts ‘Beautiful’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG0ggHM1PLM started life as a (believe or not) Carly Rae Jepsen remix. In one of his early mixes you can hear it emerge from (in my opinion her best single) ‘This Kiss’. A. G. Cook and EasyFun are both massively inspired by 80’s synthpop outfit Scritti Politti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-8qE1dF8Dc . GFOTY is a big Scooter fan. Hannah Diamond creates all of her promotional material and describes first seeing the TLC video ‘Waterfall’s’ as a formative experience. In her words: “I’m not interested in creating some fake thing. Everything I’ve put out has been written or co-written by me, shot by me, photoshopped by me, and touched up by me. Even if it is a slightly amplified version of me and the things I’m interested in, it’s not falsified.”
I could go on forever. I don’t believe for one second that people that spend this much time listening and thinking about pop music and it’s promotion would base their entire livelihoods on empty cynicism. You can not like their music because you think it sounds bad or poorly mixed or w/e but don’t assume bad faith on their part where there is none.
Katherine: I think an element of QT is satire- of the consumerism that causes ‘popstars’ to become products (perfume, Nicki Minaj has her own drink, etc.)- but I don’t think it’s cynical. She plays ‘Birthday’ by Katy Perry and ‘Emotions’ by Mariah Carey ALONG with SOPHIE in her sets. She had to get food standards accreditation for her drink and there’s a clear connection between her previous work as artist Hayden Dunham http://haydendunham.com/ and her current work as QT. Again, I find it impossible to believe that someone that has put this much effort in her work would be doing it for completely cynical reasons- What an empty life!
To be clear, I don’t think ‘Hey QT’ is one of PC’s best: it’s too long and doesn’t quite have enough ideas to sustain it- but I don’t think it’s completely cynical.
thank you for the detailed writeup!
Cool *clap* Good *clap* Times *clap* is *clap* right *clap*
also @Will sophie isn’t actually part of pc music
I stand corrected. PC Music-adjacent, then, whatever. Still hate it.
i agree with coolgoodfun’s sentiments essentially, but i also think it’s pretty easy to read pc music as cynical hucksters when a. g. and danny talk about music school and namedrop conlon nancarrow or whoever in every interview they do. and it hardly behooves anyone to research music they react negatively to further, but i think pc music are more diverse than their critics give them credit for. a lot of the negative reaction leaves out easyfun, kane west, tielsie, felicita, dj warlord, spinee, and lil data. that’s like 2/3 of the label. not to mention other affiliates like palmistry and lorenzo senni and simon whybray (whose JACK/non stop pop club night/radio show is where they got their legs in the first place.)
i am admittedly a fan, they hit my musical pleasure centers in the right way. i think the whole postmodern theoretical apparatus they ground their music in is silly, and for me enjoyment of their music completely bypasses that. it certainly does for other music i enjoy, say jam city or oneohtrix point never, and not so for others – with someone like fatima al qadiri or james ferraro, for example, a lot of it just rings as hollow academicism. but i dunno i also like nightcore. there’s no accounting for taste, as they say.
anyway long time reader, first time writer. i appreciate this site because it exposes me to a lot of different music and different views and gets me out of my echo chamber. i think this song is like a 6 or 7 — i listened to it a lot when it first leaked, but its been diminishing returns since.