The Singles Jukebox

I can’t improve on “HMAS Somebody That I Used to Know”

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[4.17]

Iain Mew: The capsize here is presumably the sinking of HMAS Somebody That I Used to Know following a forcible onboarding by the piratical forces of dull tropical dance music.
[3]

Will Rivitz: I’ve listened to this song four times now, and I couldn’t tell you anything that happens in it. There are guys who sing, I think? And a girl? And maybe some ebbing synths? Airy confections can be great, but this slips away too easily.
[4]

Tim de Reuse: Surprisingly dark for a song with so many “Hey-ay-ay-ay-ya”s. The breathy chants of “oh my god” at first sound a little dead behind the eyes, but by the end they’ve progressed to existential dread — it’s the singular “oh my god” you say when you’re too overwhelmed to say anything else. On that level the lyrics are a lovely little punch in the gut, but I can’t help but see strange dissonance between the half of the song that wants to be a triumphant four-on-the-floor major-keyed singalong and the half that groans “Give in to the lonely” as it cries into its cereal.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Warren’s melody has a hint of remembered angst — a well from which she can continually draw if shes going to keep working with the Chainsmokers.
[5]

Adaora Ede: “Capsize” comes from a lineage of emerging viral alty producer+no name singer pop hits a la the Chainsmokers. Building around a droning indie electro beat isn’t exactly the best way to push an awkward ersatz-duet in which the unknown male vocal gets drowned out by the much more emotive Warren. This would have managed to sound complex in 2012, but with the changing range of synthpop in mainstream music, the time that “Capsize” comes out in does not serve analeptic to a tired boom chorus and faux-ethnic chanting. A collation partly triggered by the half-rhyme of the song titles,I can’t help but think of “Capsize” as the emo, less culturally aware cousin of Vance Joy’s “Riptide”. Which stinks, because “Riptide” was already the weird cousin.
[4]

Cassy Gress: Tropical house is supposed to sound a little tropical, right? This hits the checkboxes with the rhythm and marimba-esque synths, but unlike the songs that sound like a lit up beach party at night, this one puts nothing in my mind other than the studio. “Give in to the lonely / here it comes with no warning” is awkward every time she runs through it, especially on the last chorus, where “lonely / here” gets mangled and smeared.
[3]