Is there a theme today?

[Video][Website]
[5.45]

Patrick St. Michel: The syrup-dripping-down-a-wall pace matches the general ho-hum theme, which even Hayley Kiyoko sings it’s “nothing new.”
[4]

Will Adams: The combination of wobbly, spiky production and a friendly lilt is effective, but in 2015, “girls like girls like boys do, nothing new” is no revelation. In 2015, it’s easy to find art that speaks to the complex experiences of queer people, and yet here we are, reviewing a pop song that is racking up YouTube views and Upworthy shares when it’s not even daring enough to say anything beyond “homosexuality exists.” The attendant video, which also irons out nuance, follows an annoying trend that places its cast — mostly white, model-thin, gorgeous and have flawless skin — in four minutes of wish fulfillment. A fantasy in the present, without the yucky emotional baggage: the crux of the clip is our protagonist’s revenge on the boyfriend, not the abuse he had just inflicted on his girlfriend, not the consequences of the girls’ kiss and how it will reverberate throughout the neighborhood, their schools, their families, themselves, nothing. We’re meant to say “fuck yeah” as she throws those punches but not think about what it really means. The song and video pander to that crowd who finds it sufficient to leave “IT MADE ME CRY” in the comments and not think about queer issues any more deeply. But when “Girls Like Girls” doesn’t treat its subject matter with much depth, why should its audience?
[5]

Cédric Le Merrer: If only it didn’t sound like store brand Sky Ferreira.
[3]

Micha Cavaseno: The production sounds like a wall of bass, but the vocals sound like gurgles beneath a giant bubble. And the greatest failing is the concession that “girls like girls like boys do.” All these acknowledgments and attempts to rebuff that still take the blatant pains to give it up to the other audience. Look, at the end of the day, forget me, and never mind them. Do you. While it makes perfect sense to me that the song is supposed to make a scene, it becomes more about the scene than the inspiration. Its not a “as long as its not in my face” that makes me protest, nor is it an “I don’t wanna see this.” I and the many interlopers shouldn’t even be a thought, point blank.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: A solid pop song made more significant when you realize that it’s about young lesbian love: “girls like girls like boys do, nothin’ new.” Its video is a 4:30 indie film, and a real gutpunch. The song could use a little more chutzpah. 
[6]

Rebecca A. Gowns: The chorus alone — “girls like girls like boys do, nothing new” — is an emotional rollercoaster. An exclamation, a compromising analogy, then brushing it all off as if it’s not significant but a part of life. The lyric sums up coming to terms with being attracted to girls as a girl — especially as it’s repeated over and over again like a self-analyzing mantra. The kind of thing that comes to you at 2 a.m., like another line: “I’m real and I don’t feel like boys.” The music slinks and pounds, blending desire with a slick pop production. But beneath the sheen, the verses are laced with threats towards the status quo (those damn hetero boys); the words prick but seem less like things that have been said and have happened and more like a part of the narrator’s expanding night-fantasy. Not only will she kiss a girl, but the girl will be a damsel in distress, and to get to her she will tear down walls, steal thunder, become a dark cloud. Fine, normal, nothing new. Until the morning.
[9]

Alfred Soto: The singsong chorus has the effect of explaining matters to idiots, and I can imagine Kacey Musgraves tiring of the acoustic twaddle and adding these twinkling synths. Depending on your political persuasion, “nothin’ new” is either a triumphant statement or a reflection of the tune’s blahness.
[6]

Danilo Bortoli: Indeed, “nothing new”, as Kiyoko sings, happens in the song — both sonically and figuratively. The fact that she understands (and masters such realization) that is “Girls Like This”‘s biggest strength. And also why it’s so necessary, even moving. 
[9]

Katherine St Asaph: I’m not sure there’s much demand for Lorde played at the wrong tempo.
[2]

Ramzi Awn: Just enough punk. Just enough Debbie Deb. Just enough L7. Girls are heavy. Boys are heavy. And apparently, girls like girls like boys do. I buy it.
[9]

Brad Shoup: But not as much as they should like steel drums.
[3]