The Singles Jukebox

I’ve got the factor/Now can you find x?

[Video][Website]
[6.43]

Adaora Ede: Perhaps it’s just the first-gen Nigerian-American in me, but it seems like artists of West African descent have been doing the damn thing in Western mainstream dance music. It’s Wizkid’s (muffled) crossover into American charts with Drake, MNEK bopping into the hearts of UK poptimists aaaand the one hit wonder of Nico & Vinz. And we have the X Factor runner-ups to save us from a futile attempt this time! Reggie ‘n’ Bollie were both somewhat popular musicians in their home country of Ghana, so the bar for pure Afrobeat WILL be raised. I was gladdened to hear the introductory Highlife guitars, but then I was confused by the skyrocketing chorus beat, and THEN I proceeded to lose all sense of direction on processing the “I got the hotline/can you make it bling” line. “New Girl” continues to be undeniably charming because Reggie ‘N’ Bollie are probably nice guys, but I can’t get past how watered down this is conceptually.
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Cassy Gress: Drunk In Love! Hotline Bling! Netflix and Chill! This fluffily-texted song has no right to be as sunny and fun as it is. I blame the steel drums.
[7]

Alfred Soto: The lust is charming instead of gross. The Guetta-tized steel drum hook is gross.
[4]

Iain Mew: I like that the song presumes a world in which references to Fuse ODG’s “Dangerous Love” are on a level with referencing Netflix and chill and “Hotline Bling.” It’s a world they’re doing their best to bring about, to be fair, and “New Girl” can’t hurt — sunny, enthusiastic and with occasional sideways choices (the references to past failures, the Nintendo bridge) that make the really obvious ones easier to take.
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: In its twelfth series, Reggie ‘n’ Bollie came the closest any here-for-the-laughs act ever have to winning The X Factor. They weren’t cast in the Chico mould and less still the Wagner one, but were nonetheless restricted to a very specific strain of songs – at least, that is, until the mandated Bob Dylan-cover of a winners’ single that provided one of the greatest televisual moments (and stitch-ups) of 2015. So well-defined were they all series that they now also have one of the most predictable singles of 2016, right down to the crowbarring in of their “mash it up” catchphrase. It is, essentially, one of the best attempts at making hay while the sun shines there could be. And how it shines! The chorus is a full-throated affirmation, and the way it sets out a cappella before revving up into ascension is as clever a trick as the flicks between “girl” and “chick”. It’s unbridled optimism with the slightest subtext of past and probable future failings, and all without the threatened Cheryl Cole cameo.
[8]

Katie Gill: God, I hope this gets airplay stateside. It has summer jam written all over it and I adore it for precisely that reason. It’s fun, catchy, peppy, and the perfect anecdote to the deluge of emotional white boys I keep hearing on my top 40 (why does Charlie Puth still get airplay?!). The fun reggae & Caribbean influence (there are steel drums!!!), endearingly goofy lyrics, and the sheer danceability of the song makes a catchy as hell summer jam. Come on American radio, if we helped make OMI a hit, y’all can surely do the same for this piece of pure fun.
[9]

Brad Shoup: 2016: The Lyric meets 2015: The Production.
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