The Singles Jukebox

We like house a bit better when it’s not outta the UK…

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[7.42]

Will Rivitz: UK house duo Gorgon City’s debut LP Sirens in 2014 was pop house done right by any metric, but it was missing vibrancy, something energizing it beyond safe dancefloor pleasers. “Free Somebody” is what that sound feels like. The elements are all the same — upper-register synth drones, superball bass, jazzy piano — but there’s crackle to the latter, a life so intent on demolishing any of the sterility on Sirens that it’s infectious, impossible not to like. It doesn’t quite reach the zenith of this sound — Disclosure’s Settle is still unassailable in that regard — but it comes admirably close.
[9]

Adaora Ede: Yaaaaasssssssssss. You know, there’s someone out there panning SM Entertainment for pushing the deep house/London garage/nouveau-’90s/minimalist EDM sound and look with nearly every single one of their artists for the past year or so (and like, not just the weird stepchildren SHINee and f(x)), but that person is not me! I can’t exactly tell you who the somebody that Luna freeing is, but I swear it’s me when that final belted chorus hits.
[9]

Lilly Gray: One of the more surprising solo efforts straight outta SM this year, and a kissing cousin to Diplo & Sleepy Tom’s “Be Right There.” I had no idea what direction they were going to take with Luna’s solo, but a dance track that slugs along into a chorus made for some snaky-slow arm waves and accompanying vocal blast is an interesting choice.
[6]

Cassy Gress: I’ve mildly stanned for Luna ever since “weonHAEEEEEE” at the end of the breakdown in “Red Light”, but in the continuing misadventures of f(x) solo work, this is essentially a slightly dancier rework of “4 Walls” with less charm. 
[5]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: SM is doing a tremendous job by putting Luna and French house together, but it’s her magnetism and soaring vocal delivery — complete with some Ellis-Bextorian “I know I know” lines — that sells this so well. And what a beautiful combination her crazy vocal delays make with those colorful, sugary synth chords. Now try to take that chorus melody out of your head.
[8]

Jessica Doyle: This is a worthy successor to Martha Wash’s Black Box-era work and a nice platform for Luna’s solo debut, but it still feels a bit inert. The chorus stops and starts enough to lose the momentum of the pre-chorus, but unlike in “4 Walls,” the pre-chorus hadn’t built up that much tension to begin with.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Wait — I do hear Black Box’s “Everybody Everybody” in those ooh-oohs, right? I’m not crazy? What a pleasure to hear this South Korean singer mix the sugar rush with the stateliness of house pianos.
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: A novelty that shouldn’t be a novelty: hearing a house-pop song in 2016 that sounds like it remembers house-pop being exciting. Or, put another way: a house-pop song where I mishear the chorus as “freak somebody” and it sounds like it isn’t out of the song’s universe.
[7]

Taylor Alatorre: Stylish, air-tight, and supremely danceable, but clings too firmly to the deep house template to register as liberatory in any sense. The only moments that feel truly freeing are the choruses, when Luna relinquishes her lockstep devotion to the beat and allows her voice to fill the entire room. 
[6]

Brad Shoup: They’ve filled this just enough, I think: it’s not a spangly arcade banger, and it’s not deep-purple minimal. Even Luna’s big moment on the chorus isn’t a diva turn. It’s a holler, a slalom of varying precision, and it absolutely enlivens her stated desire to free somebody.
[8]

Anjy Ou: There’s so much space in this song, from the post-chorus breakdowns to the centering of the listener in the lyrics: Luna wants to free us, but she’s not making it about her. Live YOUR dreams, be YOURself — she only wants to help you along the way. Fittingly it’s paced so you can dance to it at almost any tempo: a subtle head bob, a two-step, or full on voguing or whacking — all work with the beat. There’s a warmth in the song that enfolds anyone and everyone willing — like Luna is holding her arms open ready to embrace the world.
[8]

Madeleine Lee: Previously, I gave my definition of a good house song as one that makes me start dancing if I wasn’t already, and every time this comes on shuffle I have to dance: in the kitchen, on the bus, walking down the street. Luna shakes off the mysterious vibe of “4 Walls” and throws a feeling of joy and triumph into every note. No wonder it’s contagious.
[10]