The Singles Jukebox

That’s what the video link’s for, readers.

[Video][Website]
[7.67]

Micha Cavaseno: WTF? WHY ARE KOREAN GROUPS MAKING BETTER HOUSE CROSSOVER RECORDS THAN THE ENTIRETY OF THE UK RIGHT NOW? (Answer: Because songwriting and producers who aren’t sinking into the lowest common denominator). THAT SKITTERING GARAGE PULSE BRIDGE HAS SUCH AN EFFORTLESS PLACEMENT, NOT ONE PART OF THIS SONG SOUNDS ANY BIT FORCED OR CONSTRICTED. EVEN THE ADLIBBED LITTLE EMBELLISHMENTS ON THE LAST CHORUS LIKE THAT “I won’t let you down!” ARE EXCELLENT. FORGET THIS DAY. *wraps self up in Larry Heard bedsheets, turns off the light*
[8]

Alfred Soto: It crunches and munches, and if it doesn’t build to the expected climax that’s OK too because I like the idea of One Direction imitating Belly.
[7]

Madeleine Lee: “View” is the latest in a series of SHINee singles to use electronic music as a songwriting concept. “Sherlock (Clue + Note)” was a pop song posing as a mashup, with ostensibly independent parts “Clue” (the smashing glass one) and “Note” (the triumphant horns one) following it on the album. “Everybody” moved more directly toward turning the boy band into a house vocalist, processing their voices in the chorus to sound more digital (as opposed to processing them to sound more natural) and tossing them in among choppy dubstep breaks. “View” executes this idea more fully with a chorus that’s little more than a sample to be remixed: first the vocals imitate a cut-up effect, and then the cutting up actually happens. At times, the song sounds like its own remix, with the backbeat surfacing in the slow singing moments where usually it would be held back. It’s an odd move in a K-pop idol song to let the vocal melodies take a back seat to the instrumental. But it’s a smart move when the instrumental is this brilliant.
[9]

Iain Mew: Mishearing code-switching where I only understand one of the languages strikes again — I thought the chorus was “down down down down view” and pictured it as SHINee navigating some kind of voice-dance powered interface through confident commands. It’s actually a repetition of the last syllables of “Neomu areumdaun” and “Deo boyeojwo daum”, referring to the beauty of the view and asking for more. And yes, taking in the sights works equally as well for the song’s relaxed and bubbly house.
[7]

Thomas Inskeep: The most winning part of “View” for me is its chorus, which bumps along a “Show Me Love” house/pop beat with keybs to match. The rest of it is somewhat nondescript, perky boyband pop.
[6]

Patrick St. Michel: SHINee tease every sense on “View,” but the song isn’t interested in any of them as normally perceived. The thing is called “View,” they sing about touch and they mention fondue by the third line, but the aim is to transcend any of that and take it somewhere beyond the fourth dimension. It’s a song about sex, but sex as Stargate to some far off universe. It works because of how vivid the sounds on “View” are, how every sound juts out and seems like it could be touched, how in the final stretch the member’s voices bend in to new shapes. This is the joyful counterpart to the fever dream of “Symptoms,” and a dizzying song that has arrived at just the right time of the year.
[9]

Brad Shoup: Thick house-pop, concerned with the five main senses and a couple from the appendix. There’s a ritual sense to the refrain, which could be a way to say duty, or perhaps care.
[8]

Will Adams: The deep house groove is so seamless it’s as if the boys are ice skating across it. There’s one small problem: the chorus, whose vocal line thuds on the downbeats, takes away from the rhythmic interest and slows the proceedings down. Thankfully, it’s given up quickly for a dotted quarter note echo. “View” offers a formidable challenge to the assembly line house that the UK has been pumping recently.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: So funky, so summery, so perfect for radio, I had to listen with my eyes closed, bracing for a Pitbull verse that mercifully never came. Thank goodness.
[8]