The Singles Jukebox

Lovely eyes. The song, eh, not so much.

[Video][Website]
[3.22]

Alfred Soto: Look at his hair. It’s gorgeous!
[2]

Taylor Alatorre: With a humming bit that seems to take after the vocal manipulations of softcore EDM, Joel Adams aims to bring Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me” into the 21st century. Narrative cohesion is one of the first things to be left behind.
[4]

Edward Okulicz: The humming hook is kind of neat, but my first thought was “boy, if you want me to open my heart, you’ve got to open your mouth.” Never have I regretted my thoughts so much as during this chorus.
[2]

Katie Gill: The Youtube description describes Joel Adams as a “blue-eyed soul and pop singer/songwriter.” Blue-eyed soul my ass, this is a generic pop song! It’s the pop version of country music’s interchangeable sea of cowboy hats–you could have told me Shawn Mendes or James Bay sung this and I would believe you 100%. Which, of course, means that it’s generic and boring enough that I should expect to see it on the Billboard Hot 100 sooner or later. At least the humming’s an attempt at distinction.
[4]

Tim de Reuse: A doe-eyed sadboy contorts his voice into breathy sobs, emoting so violently that it’s hard to get through without being genuinely concerned he’s going to strain something. A spirit of mid-aughts pop preserved in formaldehyde, kept chemically pure for the present day. A time capsule that maybe we should put back into the ground, actually.
[2]

Will Rivitz: This is exactly the kind of song that will get panned by TSJ’s crack team of pop-culture cynics, and for good reason — it’s Sam Smith without any of the self-awareness or mild lyrical profundity, it’s music The Script rejected for being too schlocky. Some bonus points for the fairly nice post-chorus distortion, but if twenty-year-old me dismisses this as music I’m too old to enjoy that’s probably not a good sign.
[2]

Scott Mildenhall: Quite how an Australian teenager without a major label or a particularly impressive online following made it to the global Spotify top 40 is intriguing, but it’s not as if this doesn’t sound like a demographic-crossing hit. Building gradually to the tip of its sincerity so as to avoid becoming overbearing, it is an exemplar of Nice Pop. There’s a real warmth being shared with the sadness, and so if it can’t be entered into Eurovision, it really should become a Mellow Magic staple. He’s certainly got a much more pleasant voice than Charlie Puth.
[7]

Cassy Gress: That thunderous bass drum deserves better than this nasal hum. He left his soul, and back there he’s too weak. My kingdom for a writer who creates a lyric that doesn’t fit the phrasing, and then rewrites the lyric or phrasing until it fits.
[3]

Brad Shoup: He sings the word “soul” like he’s just learned it, and the hook like he’s a mosquito. In the bridge, the kickdrum and the backing vocalists conspire on a three-note figure of disbelief. But it’s very quiet. I wish they’d boosted the melodrama; lord knows it’s not being used elsewhere.
[3]