The Singles Jukebox

“I wanted to have a product that was fun and high-energy while still being easy to listen to.”

[Video]
[4.87]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: A marvel of theoretical pop physics: a song that exists without a single idea needing to have been expended at any point in its production. Too long, and it’s less than three minutes already.
[3]

Al Varela: This is one of those songs you can tell was manufactured to be a hit, especially with its bright tones and devilishly catchy chorus, but sometimes that’s all a song needs to stick with you. I’m probably not gonna come back to “Sunroof” all that often in the coming years, but in this moment where the chorus is still fresh and the energy hasn’t died out, it never fails to make me smile. 
[9]

Nortey Dowuona: When white people finally kill rap, it will sound like this, and we will deserve it.
[0]

Oliver Maier: So content is “Sunroof” in its own vacuousness that I can’t hate it like I would hate a Rex Orange County song for trying to be poignant. “Only got one thing in the back of my mind” evokes in startling detail the image of a single brain cell containing the concept of making out dinging around Nicky Youre’s cavernous skull like a bouncing logo screensaver. 
[4]

Jonathan Bradley: “You got those pretty eyes in your head” is some android-fixated-on-human-physiology phrasing that falls between the tactility of “Fresh Eyes” and the body horror of “Who gave you eyes like that/Said you could keep them.” “Sunroof” has other icky qualities, like a vocal squeezed into a little toothpaste squiggle of minty freshness; this AI is attempting a chirrup of joy.
[3]

Scott Mildenhall: It’s hard not to feel a warmth for this eminent dweeb, reputedly the first ever resident of Owl City. Someone has to make songs for Disney Channel party scenes, and he’s done so efficiently: drawing an untapped concept from the summertime word cloud, then strumming it up into anodyne fantasy. Boring, but harmless.
[5]

Rose Stuart: Bland, inoffensive and catchy — this song is tailor-made for TikTok. Personally, I liked it better when it was called “Better Now” by Post Malone.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Sure, this is a cute, lightweight head-nodder of a summer pop radio jam, but the vocals are intensely irritating, with that post-Post Malone “I’m not going to enunciate a single word” effect that makes it ultimately unlistenable for me.
[2]

Anaïs Escobar Mathers: I love this kind of pop song, with the la-di-da’s and a clear lean on that ineffable summer feeling where you could potentially have a crush again just because it feels that good to feel even a few minutes of sunshine on your face. It’s fun goddamnit, and for maybe three or so minutes, it’s nice to forget about everything going on except how you feel kind of alright while listening to it.
[8]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Life is Good t-shirt-ass song.
[2]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A pleasant, breezy entry for song of the summer which unfortunately feels so clumsy and substanceless that one wonders if it’s the product of generations of Maroon 5 inbreeding. 
[5]

John Seroff: The difficult bit of making pop is altering the recipe barely enough to show flashes of originality without losing the form. Those that over-polish or pander run the risk of reminding us more of the production ladder than hot summer nights. Not to say there aren’t pleasures to be had in the vacuum-packed, just that those thrills tend toward penny-candy short and sweet. “Sunroof” is fittingly something of Starburst, redolent of wax paper but creamy and satisfying under the right pressure. If the savor is forgettable, at least it doesn’t foul the palate.
[6]

Juana Giaimo: Some of my favorite songs to cover on The Singles Jukebox were the “this is not going to change your life” kind; the kind of songs that when I listen to them I think “oh, this is nice”, but know that after reviewing them, I probably won’t listen again. But would I mind if I turned the radio on by a summer sunset as I’m driving and “Sunroof” came along? Of course not. I would even tap my fingers on the wheel to the beat. 
[7]

Ian Mathers: One thing I won’t miss: Having to sit through the entirety of songs where people sing like this.
[4]

Brad Shoup: The chorus is “Better Now” snaking a hand out the passenger window, so that’s already a great start. There’s his vowel-munching drawl: not fratty, just eager to impress. There’s the sun-scrambled lyric, which has all these stock images and automatic phrases but cuts and deals them in magical ways. There’s the engineering on the intro that pretends this is beaming in over a crappy transistor from the bygone paradise of… 2011. There’s you are exactly what I want/kinda cool and kinda not: a perfect line. There’s the sturdy chording and a killer wordless singalong and apparently a Thomas Rhett co-write? Please keep your heart open for [10]s; they are all over.
[10]