The Singles Jukebox

We feed you our mild appreciation…

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[6.00]Katherine St Asaph: Not quite the #lowpology2016 anthem you’d expect from its chorus, “I won’t apologize,” but not quite not. The introduction is a self-loathing wonder: Berger swallowing the word “drunk” like the last drop of flat beer, voice luminous like a 4 a.m. streetlamp and words exhaustedly blunt: “I’m not OK and I haven’t been.” The rest is standard Scandopop tropework: the masochistic (“whip me with your nothingness again and again and again”) juxtaposed with the mundane (“you can keep the couch”), the sad yet sparkling chorus. “Apologize” sacrifices some of the latter for the former, to its detriment, and “bad one” is one of those Twainian almost-right phrases, but all is redeemed by six perfect words: “I’m fucked up for a reason.” The vagueness makes it less “Habits” than “The Hills,” and more potent than either; for every fucked-up woman there’s someone who made her so, Berger says, who probably should apologize and won’t, and why should she do their job? The question is unresolved: a defiant gesture, made toward an empty room.
[6]

Alfred Soto: That surging synth bass threatening to swallow Margaret Berger’s advice is by far the best element in this midtempo plod. “I’m fucked up for a reason” makes better sense tagging a thumper.
[5]

Iain Mew: The offhand gothic menace of “I stab that dagger in your side/force you to bleed out all your pride” sounds enough like Karin Park to have got me checking for another co-write. She’s not there, but it’s when Berger mines the same fucked-up territory that “Apologize” becomes more than another pretty but forgettable electro ballad.
[6]

Brad Shoup: As dissociated as OneRepublic’s hit of the same name could never be, “Apologize” finds Berger making her case without passion, as flyweight synths blurge and lilt around her. She makes real steps across that bridge, though, and they impact.
[6]

Cassy Gress: I’m not sure the chord pattern flows or syncs up all that well, but I’m forgiving that because that lyric about “I’m not okay and I haven’t been” kind of stabbed me (she likes songs that reference stabbing and knives, doesn’t she?) Also the “whip me with your nothingness again and again and again” — it’s a little Reznory, but there’s a hollow, fearful disappointment in the knowing you fucked up and the waiting for retribution that never comes.
[7]

Thomas Inskeep: I love the tenor of this song, akin to the Knife going much more pop: “I know I’ve been a bad one/But I’m fucked up for a reason,” Berger sings, but the song never quite gets going, like it’s stuck in second gear.
[5]

Will Adams: The lyrics point daggers, but the production crumples to the floor. Berger’s voice navigates the space between these poles, between impassioned rebuke and numbed self-destructiveness. The result isn’t explosive, but it’s not supposed to be.
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: Piercing honesty backed by humdrum beauty has been a feature of Scandinavian pop since at least ABBA, but it really depends on my mood whether the piercing or the humdrum wins out.
[6]