The Singles Jukebox

Thanks to William, Vietnam… uh… drops into our schedule…

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[6.11]William Love: “Hey. I’ve been thinking about the first time we met. Your lips, your smile, and the way you looked at me. Damn it.” As much as I want to tell my boyfriend I plagiarized one of the most romantic things I’ve said to him in a month from my new favorite ratchet V-Pop jam, I might have to keep this one a secret. Take notes, world — you can be face down, ass up, and in love at the same time.
[8]

Gaya Sundaram: I love Vietnamese pop but hate spoken intros; that kind of pabulum is just wasting my time and keeping me from potentially good music. And that is what “What Is Love” is, despite the slow build-up almost putting me to sleep. Get past the wispy — and borderline boring — first verse to be rewarded with a weirdly wonderful EDM trap breakdown. The second breakdown at the end, though, was sort of middling; I wish H? Ng?c Hà had gone hard and left us as breathless as she had probably left that man.
[6]

Megan Harrington: EDM is a genre born of blunt force. It sucks the bass out of the mix, swinging it higher and higher above the listener’s head just to crush their skull with a super-massive drop. It’s unsubtle, that’s its brilliance. Disco’s formula is similarly simple, built on layers of satiny repetition. “What is Love” combines the two, and though they’re a bit uncomfortable together — saturated like oil and water — hearing the breathy titular question evolve into waves of distortion is deeply satisfying.
[8]

Scott Ramage: At first it starts with what sounds like a revised take on Ciara’s “Promise,” then there’s an incongruous and unearned breakdown which descends into a trap beat with OTT vocal science, and it finishes with a thundering garage house section. There’s the nucleus of two very good songs here, and one awful one. The opening stretch makes great use of H? Ng?c Hà’s voice, which carries gravitas and poise; the middle section is a huge disservice to what she brings to this. It’s a neat trick to save the best-produced part to the end, which finishes far too early and demands a replay. With a [6] for the intro, [1] for the naff bosh part and [9] for the coda, it can only be a:
[7]

Iain Mew: The cartoonishly excessive electronic and manipulated vocal bits in “What is Love?”, not so much a drop as a wrecking ball through the track, remind me of a couple of superb Jeannie Hsieh tracks. Either side of that, there’s a slow crawl on one side and a nice bit of house on the other, and it’s maybe not coincidence that it’s the one without spoken vocals that shines.
[6]

Jessica Doyle: I want to explore H? Ng?c Hà’s earlier discography — her career goes back a decade — to see what she does with a more conventional song structure. Dropping the chorus in favor of EDM might play out well onstage (and strain her less, depending on the choreography), but on listening alone, “What Is Love” loses momentum as soon as her voice, perched carefully just behind the music, drops out.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: This sounds as if it was made entirely on Casio keyboard presets, and that’s not a compliment. “EDM”! “Soft R&B”! (Yes, in the same song.) H? Ng?c Hà’s voice is breathy but painfully thin, and “What Is Love?” has a crap melody, if you can call it that.
[2]

Patrick St. Michel: In theory, an EDM drop is perfect chorus material. Why risk coming off clunky with words when a rush of sound can be just as effective? “What is Love?” builds up just right, all nervous pops and an appropriately dramatic moment, when the titular question comes up. It’s a great journey, but the actual destination answers with — vaguely Diplo-ish? Bit of a comedown.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: I’m used to good songs being stymied by a boring and ill-advised trance break, now here’s a kinda boring song with a really cool sounding descent into trance in the middle! I never. H? Ng?c Hà wrings a lot of charm out of a thin song.
[5]

Crystal Leww: “What Is Love” follows the formula of a classic EDM banger: slower build up section, drop, slower build up section, drop. I am pleasantly surprised however, by how little it is concerned with following formula in a coherent and cohesive way. In other words, these pieces barely fit together, and they are not quite just loud and dumb and obvious! This starts slow and shimmering, and H? puts her full grown ass woman voice to full use, sounding more like a K. Michelle than a Jhene Aiko. It hits an EDM trap drop almost too abruptly and then returns to the grown woman R&B just as abruptly. What is the most thrilling is the conclusion, which is heart pounding house music before hitting the end like a brick wall. This shouldn’t work, but it’s compelling. H? gets to truly showcase her voice without giving up the goofy dance breakdowns either.
[7]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Without those exciting post-chorus moments (the first one going full trap, the second one taking a trance-ish turn), this track’d be nothing but a bland R&B tune, with some interesting synths, but lacking in personality. And even when most of the track is precisely about building up to those moments, the vocals give us very little to stay tuned for.
[6]

Austin Brown: I like this more every time that I listen to it. Part of that may be because I have more time: time to distract myself from the noodling utterance of “what is love” mid-chorus, which is the definite low point, time to get sucked into the bleeping electronics that remind me of aggressively repurposed chiptune, and finally, time to notice the absolutely bonkers dance breakdown in the center, which goes off like fireworks and finally articulates the title properly: “WHAT. IS. LOVE.” echoing in the background, flipping it into a power move instead of a plea. What was that thing I was trying to distract myself from again?
[7]

Joshua Kim: Spent the entire second half dreading the impending drop but then it came and changed my entire opinion of the song. “What Is Love?” is pretty straightforward but that’s OK since the pacing allows for those final thirty seconds to actually feel rewarding.
[6]

Kenny Komala: Is this a song about unrequited love? Or about infatuation? H? Ng?c Hà starts the song pondering that word, but in the end, she doesn’t care anymore if he will finally look her way or look away. By the time the second build-up in the song comes around, she chooses not to dwell on it. Instead, she decides to dance it away.
[7]

Juana Giaimo: There is a continuous process of strangement in “What is Love?” What seems a ballad is suddenly infected with retro-vibes, but then culminates with noisy minimalistic electronics. But rather than repeat the sceheme, it redefines itself in the second half by getting nearer to friendlier and lighter electronics. An interesting idea in theory, but I’m not sure the way H? Ng?c Hà puts it into practice convinces me: although it doesn’t sound completely disjointed, there is still too much rambling. Where is this song going?
[5]

Madeleine Lee: I don’t know if this is meant to replicate the ups and downs of learning about love with song, but I love how the sparkling tension of the verses drops into deep house at the end. It makes me wish the first drop did that too, instead of building up to a big slow-down. At least that zippery synth effect keeps it crisp.
[6]

Brad Shoup: At first I thought it was a simple exchange between slinky R&B and an ice-cold drop. But there are all kinds of stylistic and emotional registers here, like she’s running her question through a spectrograph.
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: Since my awareness of South-East Asian popular music of the last fifty years is mostly limited to the more tasteful, awkward end of Thai pop, I’m thrilled to learn that Vietnam has produced at least one pop star not only totally comfortable with the blaring rush of EDM but willing to push it in as weird and jittery ways as anyone in East Asia — or the West — has. I can’t wait to start plunging into this rabbit hole.
[8]