Kaytranada ft. Ty Dolla Sign – Nothin Like U
“They don’t make ’em like you” — well aren’t we easily flattered?
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[6.57]
Alfred Soto: What pleasure I get from “Nothin Like U” is formal: Kaytranada cuts up Ty Dolla’s slobbering, sweetening with vaporwave synths. Like a Marvel franchise, it’s designed to be a hit from Zachow to Zanzibar.
[7]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: It’s not until the outro that I realize how “Nothin Like U” should have been more willing to let the production shine without the vocalizing. While Ty Dolla $ign knows how to ride the beat, the chorus is too muted to warrant such repetition; it often bogs the song down, preventing its innate bounce from fully registering for the listener.
[5]
Tim de Reuse: Kaytranada twists up Ty’s performance into a gorgeous, echoing mesh, filling all negative space and ducking the whole package tastefully underneath an off-kilter kick drum. It’s such effortless manipulation towards such an absorbing result; I get the feeling he could’ve squeezed similarly engaging results from anyone else he might have featured, or even from the warbling of some random schmuck off the street.
[8]
Pedro João Santos: The Nothin Like U/Chances maxi left me satisfied: production smooth and sumptuous across the board, as Kaytranada’s generous hand of crushed-velvet beats and granular bass proves steadier, more ponderous and assured. Yet “Nothin Like U” sets a mood, an exercise in smoothness, rather than a trend. Pleasure is derived from honeyed syncopation and Ty’s competent vocal, but there’s not much worth of note, other than how sensuous and tightly crafted it is. The hook is delivered nicely, but other than that Ty’s raspy vocal doesn’t quite go the distance as it did with Mariah. Kaytra hasn’t gained momentum, and has stuck to what he does best for a hot minute now. And there’s no need to ask if he’ll regain his buzz. Of course he will: he’s Kaytra.
[6]
Crystal Leww: Ty Dolla Sign doesn’t let this track breathe with his endless onslaught and the net effect ends up sounding sleepy, oddly enough. I gave “You’re the One” a listen right after this song and Syd sounds so effortless in comparison, more in tune with the idea that you’re there to build an atmosphere than to create a banger — resulting in a banger. This is trying so hard to put two good things together that it has the odd effect of coming across like a guy in a suit with red roses at the techno club. That being said, sleepy Kaytranada who tried hard but didn’t quite hit the mark is still pretty good, I guess.
[5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I’m so deep in the tank for Ty Dolla Sign that I convinced myself to like “Psycho,” and he’s in typical form here. He alternates between charming, tender, and deeply horny with a virtuosic smoothness, playing everything up for sheer R&B melodrama. And yet I can’t fully say that my enjoyment of “Nothin Like U” hinges on Ty’s performance at all. Kaytranada’s production work, reborn after a 2 year hiatus, is gorgeous. His synths breathe like living things, his bass notes grooving perfectly interlocked with the drums. It’s a palace of a beat, and it’s Ty Dolla Sign’s good fortune to get to inhabit it.
[8]
Edward Okulicz: Its popping beat gives “Nothin Like U” a fizzy overtone, and Kaytranada’s track has a nice 10pm cruise feel to it and Ty has lots of charm. It might be the spiffiest sounding damn song ever created.
[7]
one of the things i appreciated about this (and its single partner “chances”) is that KAYTRANADA chose to include the instrumental mixes too (which partially validate the concerns of JMK and others that this would be just fine with less Ty)
missed blurbing but this one’s an easy [9]