The Singles Jukebox

Limited flex zone…

[Video][Website]
[4.89]

Ryo Miyauchi: They rode trends only to steal the show. They turned hash tags into legit songs. They even dealt with groan-inducing guests. But this take on lite-reggae? For one, who knew what the group lacked to truly impress was a barely-there Fetty Wap verse? And the members make best use of words they probably would not actually say to flex. (Camila, a little too much.) “So tongue-in-cheek when we’re laying on roses”? Fifth Harmony deserved more for their radio single than this.
[5]

Katie Gill: Aw Fifth Harmony. I actually liked “Write On Me” and was hoping that it might make a turn-around for y’all. But then you release this, a generic sexy song featuring Mr. I Can’t Open My Mouth When I Sing aka Fetty Wap. “Work From Home” was better than this and “Work From Home” was terrible. It’s a bizarre combination of singers performing half-assed reggae. And I don’t know WHAT on Earth is up with Camila’s voice when she sings her verse but it’s so obnoxiously nasal that it threw me out of any sort of party or sexy mood I could possibly have been in.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: Blame or thank the summerfication of all pop music for this song that makes sex sound like something relaxing to do on a public beach chair in a sarong and espadrilles, no matter how many curtains and dimmed lights and rose petals and Hollywood boudoir setpieces they claim are around. It’s better if you accept it as that, rather than anything trying to be seductive.
[6]

Alfred Soto: In which Fifth Harmony compete with Demi Lovato for the Cool For Whatever Award, i.e. who can sing the most listless sex jam.
[2]

Iain Mew: Not really Fifth Harmony’s fault that I listen to this and get pre-occupied by the realisation that we should have scheduled it against the new Wonder Girls single. A bit more their fault that they get so totally outshone by Fetty Wap just continuing to be Fetty Wap to the max (imagine how good he would sound on “Why So Lonely”).
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: The skank is appreciated, but when it only gets as dutty as Fetty swallowing the third syllable on “motherfucker,” Stargate’s and Benny Blanco’s fingerprints are much more evident than Mad Cobra’s.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: The skank is rough enough to be intriguing, especially with Fetty Wap’s sing-song flow making the case for recasting Fifth Harmony as nouveau rocksteady. Reflection succeeded, mostly, in spite of this group’s tendency to accommodate five members by going bigger; 21st-century American pop is so oriented around individual stars that even a proficient girl group seems out-of-place, like finding a highly anticipated three-camera sit-com on the upcoming fall schedule. “All in My Head (Flex)” suffers for room to breathe, but with its cut-zirconia edges and fake DJ Mustard bass, I suspect the fault lies less in the concept and more in the habitually sterile production team of Stargate. Island-vibes like a resort.
[5]

Adaora Ede: Between this and this, I’ve experienced a brief sense of confusion as to why mainstream America would have let MAGIC’s reggae-lite rise again every time I’ve turned on my radio. Of course, “All In My Head (Flex)” lacks the cringe factor of the latter. Rather than relegate awkward rap verses to themselves, Fifth Harmony enlists the help of hood-but-good (enough for pop) Fetty Wap, who, quite fittingly, rocks dread extensions in the tropo-fantasy music video. At this point, we get it: everything about Fifth Harmony’s music seems overtly deliberate, from the literal lyricism, the featured rapper (who were all indistinguishable to me until they brought in Zoo Wop, tbh), the use of dated dance trends for their beats. Yet “All In My Head (Flex)” entices from beginning to end from the simple temerity that these five girls hold, gliding over vocal runs and harmonies like experts. But if I’m being truthful, [7] of these points come from Lauren’s “I waaanna feel you uun-feel you uuuunder my boooody” line.
[8]

Andy Hutchins: On the heels of their biggest (and arguably best) song, a winking, we’re-all-cool-sex-havers jam featuring one of the hot rappers of the day, Fifth Harmony are back with a we’re-all-cool-sex-havers jam featuring one of the hot rappers of the day. Where “Flex” — a better title for the song had the Cowell/Reid Empire wanted a different, better “trap”/Atlanta rapper, rather than the “trap”/”Atlanta” rapper of the moment — differs from “Work From Home” is in its disappointing lack of creativity. “So tongue-in-cheek when we’re layin’ on roses” passes for innuendo here; everything else is just “have sex with me” sung fairly well. And this is the sort of song that could really have used a second verse substantially differentiated from the first, given how samey the tropical house approach sounds and how phoned-in Fetty’s verse is. The tweak we get instead is the melisma that makes Camila Cabello “that one Fifth Harmony girl” to many. It’s fun and it’s going to be inescapable, but still a missed opportunity on several levels.
[6]