Post Malone – Circles
Pop Malone…
[Video]
[5.12]
Oliver Maier: Congrats to Post Malone for releasing the best Katy Perry song of 2019.
[7]
Alfred Soto: He’s entered the early Reagan-era L.A. studio pop of his career, and the results are as pleasant, tuneful, and anonymous. Look at his hair — he’s ready for the part.
[5]
Joshua Lu: It was inevitable that Post Malone would go pop; it was only a bit less inevitable that he would go faux-indie rock, veering dangerously close to Twenty One Pilots territory via gratuitous Tame Impala basslines. “Circles” is a nice enough jam that could’ve been a fitting b-side to “My Blood,” and maybe even a proper Trench album track if Post didn’t sound like he was gargling every time he tried to hold a note.
[5]
Tobi Tella: The most excruciating part of Post Malone is the general blah-ness of all of his songs. They’re never obnoxiously bad, they’re just boring and downtrodden for someone who’s postured themselves as a king of “hype” music. This is thankfully uptempo, and I appreciate him cutting the BS and not pretending it’s not a pop song. It’s a strong and groovy melody, the undeniable kind that makes a smash hit, but then I have to listen to Post moan about the same old poorly defined relationship BS and I tune out. No matter the style of track behind him, the surface-level lazy lyrics shine through.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Post Malone makes a dream-pop song; everyone discovers a new, unanticipated, extra-guilty pleasure. Or would, if the vocal production weren’t so flagrantly awful — loud, blown-out, bleaty in a way that can’t entirely be his fault — and if the onset of flagrant awfuless wasn’t timed such that you start really paying attention to Post’s vocals right as they’re delivering “THE SEX THOUGH, SEX THOUGH.”
[6]
Vikram Joseph: The hazy, processed guitars in the first 15 seconds send off an unexpectedly pleasant dream-pop vibe. And then the spell is rudely broken by a clunky beat and an even clunkier singer, and “Circles” proceeds to drone on for a seemingly interminable 3:36 in search of a memorable hook that’s never in danger of showing up.
[3]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: That bassline, nimble but full-bodied, finds a rightful counterpart during the second verse. Post Malone’s end rhymes begin with a stark “Let. Go.” — a moment of clarity before he resorts to a slurry of melodramatic reminiscing. The full-on reverb makes his near-tears delivery more robust.
[6]
Josh Buck: The verses on this song are impossibly dull. Literally no one who behaves or looks like Post Malone should be allowed to write something so sleep-inducing. No vocal effort and it seems like Postey settled on then central loop and then walked away from the table. But the chorus is…fine? In a “welp, this song is gonna dominate the fall so I guess I’ll figure out how to tolerate it” sort of way. The Sad Boy Pop thing is something he’s capable of crushing, but this one’s a miss.
[4]
For me, all the best songs encapsulate a time or place, real or imaginary — taking me back to middle school pining on a basketball court or floating among the pastel stars of that scene from “I Want to Eat Your Pancreas” (I SWEAR the movie’s better than it sounds…). But “Circles” doesn’t really do either. Besides the fact that you can lump the lyrics in with the rest of most anyone’s discography about post-post-heartbreak (from Adele to EDEN), it feels time-less in the sense that you can place the song anywhere in your life and the soundtrack will somehow make sense, too algorithmically anodyne to evoke a singular moment. There’s a vague warmth to the reverb’d guitar, teetering towards the oceanside sunshine of Phum Viphurit’s “Lover Boy,” but restraint keeps the place just as vague as the time: going in…circles, if you must.
I love this song