The Singles Jukebox

And a little bit of CeCe Peniston…

[Video][Website]
[4.70]

Crystal Leww: TOO MANY THINGS HAPPENING, NONE OF WHICH ARE APPEALING
[3]

Jonathan Bradley: There are a lot of ideas in “Whole Lotta Lovin’,” from Travis Scott’s melancholy-infused warp of Mustard’s signature Ratchet&B style to the house-ish build of the pre-chorus to the post-dubstep wobble of the “god dammit I’m fucked up” drop. Each works to various degrees, though no single one benefits from the abrupt transition signalling the suite’s next movement. Least successful is the 808s and Heartbreak-infused Auto-Tuned dissolution closing out the track; it highlights the diffidence gripping this usually deadly efficient producer.
[5]

Will Adams: I’m bemused and amused by how scattershot this is: Auto-Tune gauze, a CeCe Peniston quote, a hook line that goes, “God dammit, I’m fucked up”, and a sharp turn into Calvin Harris Land? Hilarious! The fun stops there, though; “Whole Lotta Lovin'” is dour and not worth much beyond a gawking first listen.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: Enough people, including Mustard himself, have crashed the DJ Mustard sound past its point of diminishing returns that I don’t blame him for wanting to do almost anything else. I’m just not sure a tropical-EDM-house interpolating CeCe Peniston and the Mustard loop at half-speed, designed for people who miss 808s and Heartbreaks, was ideal. See, even that sentence had way too much stuff in it.
[3]

Micha Cavaseno: It’s really no surprise that Mustard’s gone off into EDM territory; he’s been talking in interviews how much he wants to transcend his limited role as a rap DJ and break into that level of Superstar DJ. When you consider the fact that the two biggest hits to date of the Mustard style (“Fancy” and “Classic Man”) had nothing to do with him, and that, despite being a man who’s left a defined imprint on pop as the leading figure in a period of rap production à la Lex Luger or Lil Jon, he will never command the same amount of bookings as even a third-rate nobody trance DJ when touring, I can’t blame him any. That said, his dip into dance production is OK at best and can’t really imply he’s got a future. Morbidly, it’s the ridiculous vocalese, trash-ass attitude, and rampant Fetty Wap biting via professional gut-sucking parasite Travis Scott that’s helped this record work as well as it has.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: Travis Scott continues to show off his complete lack of charisma (or anything to say), which is only exacerbated by Auto-Tune. DJ Mustard, meanwhile, has apparently moved on from trap to EDM-lite, which I suppose means he doesn’t have much to say, either.
[2]

Brad Shoup: I really like how Travis says “god dammit I’m fucked up”: like he got home with something left on his to-do list. Mustard’s working about four different kinds of house, but they’re sequenced fantastically, up until the half-speed Harris bit where Scott does his sawtooth Kanye impression.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Edging towards the Future-inspired quasi-confesssional but without the penchant for mumbling the most revealing lines, Travis Scott could work over electronics with a producer whose beats haven’t gotten as fusty as Mustard’s.
[4]

Anthony Easton: This has a lot of space, and it is quite beautiful the way, with some excellent, slightly robotic production and something that sounds like a vocodered cry, it builds gradually from abstraction.
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: I’ve probably spent more time reading tweets talking about DJ Mustard or Travis Scott than I have listening closely to either of their work (“2 On” excepted), so my surprise at how much I liked this is really only second-hand. But I’m one of the eccentrics who loves 808s and Heartbreaks more than any other Kanye West album.
[7]