The Singles Jukebox

Jakarta group takes to English language pop, also the high seas…

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[5.33]

Alfred Soto: I wish we had chart space for the kind of R&B practiced by the Indonesian trio: leisurely, coquettish, generous about allotments. 
[6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: GAC’s recent string of singles have all been well-suited for Western consumption, and “Sailor” is no exception. Complete with English lyrics, a triplet rapped/sung bridge, and relatively contemporary production, this is all so perfectly agreeable. It’s not much more, though; while their voices may mesh well, “Sailor” becomes increasingly tedious with time, and feels significantly longer than its actual runtime. The song intends to capture the calm of sailing on a sunny afternoon, but I find myself feeling like the person who’s bored by such an activity, forced to enjoy it for the entire length of its duration.
[3]

Frank Kogan: Seems silly to criticize a smooth song for being smooth, but the smoothness isn’t working for me — well, “smooth” can mean insinuatingly smooth, or ingratiatingly smooth, or insistently smooth, or gently smooth, or hauntingly smooth, or drifting, or hazy, etc. This doesn’t seem like any of those, or anything else in particular. Nonadjectivally smooth, perhaps. Towards the end the guy raps, which gets clumsy, so “clumsily smooth” for a while, but that’s not what I was wanting on this one.
[4]

Ryo Miyauchi: The sincerity behind this is delightfully comfortable, its sparkling R&B production shining just as much with bliss. The lack of conflict and drama makes its sweetness a bit fleeting, though the crinkling and the fizzing of the beat add just enough spark to keep it going.
[6]

Iain Mew: Producer Harry Sommerdahl has one of the more wide-ranging collections of lesser credits for not-quites I’ve seen: Alesha Dixon! FEMM! Lawson! The Rasmus! “Sailor” is a lot slicker sounding than I’d predict from that, even if its early AlunaGeorge synths and drum rattles are not quite of-the-moment. GAC’s swapping vocalists lend it some added twists and a calming assurance that’s a pleasure to listen to.
[7]

Jonathan Bradley: The trap snares are on trend and entirely unsuited to this song’s more unhurried and timeless R&B arrangement. (The rap break is just as timely, yet more effective.) The three members of GAC give an unshowy performance — too much so for this to be genuinely impressive — but it’s one so amicable that that hardly matters. There’s talent here, even if on this occasion it has been arrayed only to deliver something agreeable.
[6]