The Singles Jukebox

Can this French DJ get us dancing?

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[4.71]

Rebecca A. Gowns: The first note holds such promise. Then the dull “uh huh” thuds in, and the silly beat, and what is up with the drawled vowels in this song? It fails its only purpose: this is undanceable dance music.
[2]

Anthony Easton: The last twenty seconds of this sounds like money and jazz vamping and playing around, and isn’t as good for dancing as it is for preening. It’s a seductive look. 
[8]

Iain Mew: Clue’s in the title: this would be so much better if they dropped the dance elements and turned it into the Lorde single most of it already aspires to. 
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: For once, a rhythmic dance-oriented pop record whose genesis isn’t from the dying EDM tree. Wikipedia calls French DJ Feder “deep house,” but I can promise you this ain’t deep house by any stretch of the imagination: this is actually a pop song with its roots in techno, and it’s got a little of that Berlin sense of being just a smidgen off, to its benefit. Pairing such a track with the deceptively clean and almost sweet vocals of Aiono works quite well, for “Lordly” is a little sinister and a little dark, and a little more interesting than most pop records of its ilk. 
[7]

Crystal Leww: Feder is such an interesting example of how “EDM” as a movement has become so decentralized as time has gone on. His last big single “Goodbye” charted extremely well across continental Europe, but made practically no impact in either the UK or in America, despite being sung in English. “Lordly” looks like it will repeat the trend, despite a vocal feature by American YouTube sensation Alex Aiono. The song itself has such an odd patchwork production style and energy about it that it’s very hard personally to get into it. The random “show!” ad-libs and the bleating hook do not reconcile with Aiono’s vocals and the more downtempo verses. But maybe I just don’t get it because I’m American.
[3]

Will Adams: The brass blurts aren’t surprising, but a bass that squelchy in 2016 is. I wish I could enjoy it more, but Alex Aiono keeps getting in the way. He’s in a different song entirely, chewing the scenery with a tough-guy vocal that has me gritting my teeth with every “once we run the SHUH, everyone will KNUH.”
[4]

Olivia Rafferty: “Once we run the show, everyone will know,” definitely takes the cake as Worst Rhyming Couplet Ever. But once that’s been set aside, the rest of this track doesn’t offend. Repetitive, fat and bass-y in its most enjoyable moments.
[5]