The Singles Jukebox

Calm down, Joey, it’s not THAT devastating of a score…

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[5.67]

Alfred Soto: “I used to feel devastated,” His Royal Bada$$ sings. “Now we’re on the way to greatness.” In other words, he got 2 phones. But his confidence, signified by his unsteady warble, is agreeable. 
[6]

Jibril Yassin: All it took was a production switch-up and now these throwback flows suddenly feel like they’ve been worn in. 
[7]

Ryo Miyauchi: While rap media weighed Kid Cudi’s influence and his successors after that bad series of tweets, I didn’t imagine Joey Bada$$ to be in the running with likes of, say, Travis Scott or Raury. This song at least puts him close to that circle. His sing-song mumble mirrors Cudi’s and his screams of redemption in the chorus echoes Travis. It’s a style he pulls off, but he runs into the same problem as his inspirations: great as his come up sounds, he doesn’t dig deep into his devastated past, a detail that frankly sounds more compelling to explore.
[6]

Will Rivitz: If you’re going to try to sound like Cudi, don’t make a near-carbon-copy of his early-career smashes – and also don’t make it bland?
[4]

Will Adams: “I turn my pain into cadence” isn’t revelatory in the slightest, but it follows the logic of “Devastated,” which opts for universality instead of autobiography. It’s a bit of a cop-out, but it makes the chorus’ “but now we on the way to greatness” far more endearing, as if everyone can join in the celebration.
[6]

Iain Mew: I get stuck on “all it ever took was patience” and the pre-destined success it implies. Maybe that’s an over-literal reading, but it’s not helped by how it combines with the lack of detail in how things went from bad to good. The result means feeling a bit short changed even amongst a bunch of hooks whose own contrasts are more vivid. 
[5]