The Singles Jukebox

SAME

[Video][Website]
[3.38]

Ryo Miyauchi: A fit and a moan by aging people about how they miss being dumb and innocent is a kind of pop I feel for. But I think my issue here is that I enjoy hearing guitars being played way too loud a lot more by actual dumb, young and innocent people who are clueless that they are, in fact, those things.
[4]

Juana Giaimo: Being it a song about depression and self-loathing, it sounds rather insensitive to say that it’s hard for me to take the music of The Pretty Reckless seriously. Taylor Momsen again tries too hard to sound like the tough girl fronting a rock band, and this time she also makes raspy noise that erases the sensuality that previous songs had. But it’s lyrics like “wish I was black/wish I had soul when my music attacked” what makes me want to stop the song and never play it again.
[2]

Iain Mew: Singing “wish I was black, wish I had soul” is pretty reckless — I guess you could claim the stereotypical association could be satire, but it’s not like the scattergun wishes develop it so it remains a moment to wince. The only thing in the song that does anything positive is the aggressive guitar and rhythm churn, and even that’s #fakemuse.
[2]

David Sheffieck: Further proof (if needed, which it probably wasn’t) that successful pastiche is a delicate balance and most artists aren’t up to the challenge. The vocal, at least, manages to be credible – and an interesting shift from the previous Pretty Reckless songs I’ve heard. But what the hell is going on with that second verse?
[2]

Katherine St Asaph: That second verse… does not particularly read 2017’s room, especially preceding a plausibly Spencerian chorus of “I wanna take it back.” On the one hand, it’s really not that far removed from “Civil Disobedience.” On the other, I’d rather listen to that.
[4]

Micha Cavaseno: Taylor Momsen probably hates when you avoid the traditional ingredients of bread, pop out some alternative like say, zucchini bread, and call it bread. It’s a new day and age folks! We need to eat healthy! And not only has one of my least favorite bakers of “the bread” learned how to try and throw in Zeppelin riffing in order to sound harder than basic glam riffing of earlier singles, she’s using stale ideas on self-loathing and sounding all the more unappealing. Taylor Momsen struggles with the eternal saga of “How do you try to avoid burning out on bread?” like many, but nobody else can make it seem less sympathetic a struggle.
[2]

Josh Langhoff: The frantic, suffocating riff pretty well sums up this band’s agenda: flailing for transcendence through any means necessary, and being eternally thwarted at it. Someone’s bound to point out that Staind, Swans, and a host of other grim tossers have had similar agendas and the furrowed brows to prove it, and what’s the difference anyway? To which I have no answer except The Pretty Reckless, and in particular Taylor Momsen, allow themselves the freedom to really flail. This explains how Momsen unearthed the headdesk-worthy, easily rejoindered line, “wish I was black/wish I had soul and my music attacked.” In one sense she’s simply singing aloud what most white musicians — from Elvis to twenty one pilots, and even Momsen’s own band on their decent Temptations ripoff “Wild City” — have playacted in their music. Not that she’s “saying what we’re all thinking,” that vile thought placeholder that helped land us our current president. No, Momsen is laying bare the psychosis of her entire genre — which means she, maybe more than anyone else, is embodying rock music. I don’t know how Real Rock Radio fans read that line, but if they sing along to the whole song, eventually they’ll reach “I’m gonna drown in depression again.” And even that closing line isn’t “the point,” because every line of “Oh My God” fires scattershot at a different target.
[8]

Will Adams: *that video of Taylor Momsen parkouring to escape from paparazzi except Taylor is me and the paparazzi is this song*
[3]