The Singles Jukebox

Today’s entries are all named after Mariah Carey songs.

[Video][Website]
[6.00]

Ryo Miyauchi: The beat’s dim, digital glow does more than enough to open up the heart. Fei certainly gets it, surrendering her voice into the synths in the chorus like a trust fall. I wish her fantasy involved less of being the object in someone else’s, though her voice suggests to me she still has control despite giving a good portion of it up.
[6]

Adaora Ede: Fei offers a slow burner for her solo debut — a departure from the clap-stomp, matter-of-fact style of her group, Miss A. As for “Fantasy,” Fei’s role as an unpopular member of a nearly defunct girl group in one of the biggest labels in the K-pop market has assembled soundly into this track: a little bit of mystique, not a lot of public appeal. Best way to let everyone know that you are more than the shadows of your much more popular group member is a sexy concept, right? Fei offers us slinky modernity that contrasts JYP’s archetypical maximalism. the glimmering scintillas of synths trick the listener into believing this song is more complex than it actually is, but even Fei whispering over Muzak cannot be shielded by the smoke and mirrors of 360 VR hula hoops. 
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: The pulsating synth washes and airy helium vocals are certainly seductive, but the lyrics aim for seductive and hit creepy: my instinctive reaction is lady, you don’t even know me.
[6]

Will Adams: The heavy swing and lush seventh chords on “Fantasy” seem modeled after Disclosure’s “Latch,” though Fei opts for a hushed delivery instead of Sam Smith’s unabashed catharsis. That she is doing so with a similar sentiment makes “Fantasy” more hypnotizing and, in a way, far more intimate.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Every time the drum programs thwack and dispel the clouds of candy-colored synths, I suspect the song’s going deeper than masochism.
[5]

Josh Langhoff: Guitar pokes like dust motes through a gauzy shimmer of cymbal and reverb. Fei syncopates gently across a mechanized swing beat. A modulation sounds like a hasty afterthought. Chillwave lives and grows flesh.
[6]

Scott Mildenhall: Not a foot is put wrong until that weird synth grenade that’s thrown mid-vocal-run towards the end. Perhaps calling it a grenade is an exaggeration, but alongside the rest of the song it’s like a Doritos Roulette assailant. Of course if “Fantasy” were a bag of Doritos it would be Blue Flavour: always composed, with just the slightest kick; never needing to be as attention-grabbing as Red Flavour. Neon skies, Fei in a deckchair with a mass-off bag of Doritos. That is, suddenly, what this song sounds like.
[7]

Cassy Gress: This song sounds like a languorous stretch, one of those songs where I could pull out a checklist of everything Fei and the producer(s) were trying to accomplish with this and I’d give them high marks on every one. It’s sexy, sighing, promising.
[8]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Seductive and oneiric, but ultimately too feeble and restrained for its own good. The production knew that and tried to mend it with that key change. The beat is solid, though, but that’s just maybe my weakness for synthesized shuffle grooves. 
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: It’s as vaporous and enchanting as its title, as much Neon Bunny as it is idol, and would have earned a good couple of extra points if it weren’t for the concluding key change, which arrives like an airhorn in the middle of a daydream.
[6]