The Singles Jukebox

Teen pop from musical.ly star…

[Video]
[3.50]

Alex Clifton: I’ve been trying to figure out What the Kids Are Into this year, which has meant spending an ungodly amount of time of musical.ly compilation videos and not understanding the appeal of the platform. Most of the videos are lip-syncs or dances to sped-up versions of songs, so it feels less about the actual content of the music and more about the performance aspect. Loren Gray’s a regular fixture in these compilations, and to be honest I didn’t expect too much knowing she had a song coming out–after all, she’s made her name from lip-synching rather than singing. So “My Story” ended up being a pleasant surprise; it’s Radio Disney-friendly, but Gray has the vocal charisma for it and really, truly sounds like a 16-year-old trying to figure it out. She goes for gold at the end where she duets with herself with the prechorus and chorus playing simultaneously (which, honestly, is my kryptonite). We’ve yet to see what the rest of Gray’s career will look like, but honestly, it could be a lot worse.
[5]

Claire Biddles: I don’t mean to be snobby about social media ‘personalities’ who go on to launch pop careers (my favourite pop star is Troye Sivan!) but “My Story” is so asinine that it’s too easy to connect Loren Gray’s origin story — a series of viral lipsynch videos on musical.ly — with the distinct lack of personality present.
[1]

Edward Okulicz: I’d like this overview of a recurring dating/relationship nightmare life a lot more if it dug down and told the stories rather than summarising them. Gray might then sound like she had a bit more investment in the material.
[4]

Alfred Soto: She’s sixteen and sings like it — a good thing. Her inflections sound as if Gwen Stefani were her Stevie Nicks. In its mediated Caribbean-ness the tracks bear a passing resemblance to “Pass the Dutchie.” The problem is with the hook. What’s her “story”? What is she singing about? 
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: A Lego-set tropical arrangement, melodic parts stripped from “Can’t Stop the Feeling” and lyrics that can’t decide whether they’re about dating bad boys (or at least the unspecified Radio Disney version of them) or dating your friends. But there’s a rickety charm to it, a throwback to when teenpop songs didn’t need to be ambitious.
[4]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Wish there was more going on in the low end because “My Story” ends up sounding a bit too shrill to worth engaging. Even then, the generic lyrics and the vocal harmonies place this firmly as forgettable teen-pop and nothing more. Honestly, hearing songs from these young internet celebrities make me yearn for the appropriately awkward and less-manicured Ark Music Factory productions.
[2]