The Singles Jukebox

As promised, if not as scheduled, the second posthumous song on our slate…

[Video]
[5.00]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A high-gear pop, punk, hip-hop, and EDM chimera of a song in which Juice WRLD posthumously exorcises and defeats demons that plagued his short but prolific life. 
[7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Bold of Marshmello to produce a pop-punk song considering it sounds like he’s never heard a guitar before in his life.
[4]

Tim de Reuse: I find the trajectory of Marshmello’s career train-wreck fascinating. His act is a Sisyphean exercise in streamlining EDM production out of all of its most worthwhile qualities: the synth vocabulary reduced to a few fat leads, no more than a handful of elements allowed at one time, and never any ambiguity as to what’s supposed to be grabbing your attention. The chunky electric guitar and indie mid-aughts handclaps, then, read as parasitic, like a car commercial noticed the stylistic void and muscled its way in. Outside of the well-delivered, insistent hook, Juice WRLD can barely make a dent in the flavorless gray mess of it all.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: Substantially better than expectations! Marshmello doesn’t make the track posthumous “See You Again” sap — I mean, not that it’s above him — nor does “come and go” refer to what I was so sure it was going to. The track doesn’t come and go so much as get halfway and stay, and the muddled guitar-ish noodling doesn’t punch so much as waft with Axe (or whatever the kids use now instead of Axe). But I wouldn’t mind more of this on the charts, somehow.
[6]

Alex Clifton: The chorus is cool and feels like an anime intro — fitting, as that’s the style of the music video — but it kind of fizzles after that. It also doesn’t help that that chorus is literally the same two lines repeated until I can’t remember how to form any other sentences. 2020 has felt like a year of boring rap (save for Megan & Cardi), and this doesn’t do a lot to change that perception.
[4]

Nortey Dowuona: The slight, low piano progression, the low rumbling bass, the slow stewy bass drums, the All-American Rejects guitar riff, the handclaps, and the Chainsmokers drop — why do we keep letting Marshmello do his own drops? He’s not Tainy! Oh, and Juice is clumsy but kind and sincere, which I love. Rest in peace, MR. WRLD, and it kinda sucks you got outrapped by Big Day Chance.
[6]