The Singles Jukebox

Today’s editor has never seen Grease so please write in your own jokes in the comment section…

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[4.86]

Will Adams: Far less of an “All of Me” rehash than I expected, “Summer Nights” swaps balladry for uplift to decent effect. Between the string hits and fluttering bells, Tiësto’s production starts approaching Clean Bandit. It’s lovely in its own right, even if it means that it highlights the facelessness he’s sunk to over the past few years.
[6]

Patrick St. Michel: This combination is completely superfluous, as whatever unique details John Legend could in theory bring to this is drowned out by the big-tent thrills of the guy coming before the “ft.” part of “Summer Nights.” Still, that’s mostly fretting about the song’s price tag. John Legend sounds fine, and ultimately this is the sort of shuffling number with a big, sweltering center that probably sounds great at a mass gathering.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Point out the people in the crowd dancing to this shit.
[1]

Thomas Inskeep: I’ve never heard a Tiësto song this downright housey, damn. This is straight-up uplifting, four-on-the-floor house music. The addition of Legend is a smart one, as his voice has tons more personality and soul than most vocalists gracing big-name DJs’ tracks these days.
[8]

Tim de Reuse: Tiesto’s breezy turn has served him well, but at the very core his modus operandi hasn’t changed in over a decade and it’s almost laughable here — he puts on a tickly, echoey layer of pastel-blue paint over everything but you can clearly see the skeleton of the early-aughts house juggernaut underneath struggling to switch its “mood” dial to “endless carefree summer.” Meanwhile, John Legend does his John Legend thing, which is firmly, definitively okay.
[5]

Cassy Gress: John Legend continues to have one of the most boring, flaccid voices in soul and I’m not sure he is capable of making lust with anyone. Tiësto’s a legend of club music; was no one else willing to work with him on this, maybe someone with more of a “funky soul vibe?” I’d totally dance to this if I wasn’t so busy going, “Him?”
[4]

Brad Shoup: Legend is the king of casual straining. He’s doing cruise-ship disco while Tiësto owns the tourist-trap club in the cove: there’s much that links them, but they’re apart enough not to sync.
[4]