Alex brings us some UK garage not actually from the UK…

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Alex Ostroff: At the end of the first year without any regular Singles Jukebox coverage, the prospect of selecting just one track for Amnesty Week was daunting. Should I choose a fun quirky pop-rap track that reflected the continued importance of TikTok in drawing attention to new music in 2023? Or maybe a pop-country break-up anthem that draws equally from ‘Tim McGraw’ and ‘We Belong Together’ that would have been Jukebox catnip back in 2009 but can’t seem to break through in 2023? Or maybe yet another British attempt to revive the spirit of R&B girl groups? Ultimately, I picked Tori Kelly’s “cut” – a track that I suggested was an American big-pop-chorus approach to PinkPantheress’ UK garage revivalism in an earlier Amnesty Week blurb. But while there are undeniable 2step influences here (the first single from Tori’s 2023 EP samples Craig David directly), “cut” functions equally as millennium pop revivalism. Darkchild and Timbaland both get writing credits, although presumably just for the vibe that Kelly and producer Jon Bellion are trying to evoke and the ad-libs that Timbaland added when they sent him the track. For years, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Tori Kelly’s music. She seemed to be one of those artists with an incredible voice who was perpetually singing as part of award show tributes, but who never settled into a clear artistic identity; cursory research indicates that she yo-yoed from a 2015 Max Martin-produced debut to two explicitly Christian gospel albums to acoustic YouTube performances. There’s nothing particularly novel or boundary-pushing about “cut”: a trilling acoustic guitar loop, garage drums, arpeggiated violins, Timbo mumbling in the background, Tori jumping the octave for the final chorus, an onomatopoeiac hook that tries to evoke the sound of a skipping heartbeat. But it somehow embedded itself in my brain all autumn and never let up. “cut,” and the rest of this year’s Tori EP, made me sit up and pay attention to Tori Kelly for the first time a full eight years into her career — and made me actively excited to see what she does next. 
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Katherine St Asaph: Timbaland jumping on a trend in 2023, and Tori Kelly jumping on a trend at any time, is probably a sign that the trend is on its way out. The returns haven’t totally diminished, though.
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Micha Cavaseno: When UK garage touched US shores, a lot of the forms were unrecognizable compared to the source material — Craig David’s “Fill Me In” is one thing, but “7 Days” isn’t exactly bubble & squeak. I would like to say that there was a big period of us dancing to Monsta Boy or Masters of Ceremony just so my own nerdy adolescent pursuits felt a little more valid, but no, I’m pretty sure we just listened to Blu Cantrell and that Mary J. Blige comeback record around that time. So really, I’m just fascinated at anyone from the US deciding to emulate a style that’s so comparatively niche. As far as retro-UKG from the last few years, it’s definitely not hitting “One Kiss” levels, nor is it even Jorja quality, but maybe that’s the consequence of things getting lost in translation.
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Aaron Bergstrom: Tori gives it a valiant effort, but this still sounds like the batteries slowly running out on a Timbaland Speak & Spell.
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Taylor Alatorre: A second-string Timbaland beat scores some major points off the bench, assisted by Tori Kelly’s infectious enthusiasm at being allowed on a Timbaland beat of any sort. One can choose to dismiss Tori as Ariana Grande for church moms who did the math on “34+35,” or one can choose to celebrate her for that same reason. Her brand of pop soul is clean in more than one sense of the word — witness how she skims across those challenging vocal phrases like they’re beginners’ exercises, or how she uses the pauses in the production to turn a lead-in to the chorus into a game of musical jump rope. Let’s not agonize over the fact that the definitive slumber party music of two decades ago is now reappearing as adult contemporary; instead, let’s call it incremental progress.
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Brad Shoup: Howling at the possibility that Timbaland is going to become a hired-gun ad-lib guy, like how a few years back everyone was hiring Nile Rodgers to strum a little. At least Nile gets some co-production credits!
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Nortey Dowuona: The skipping garage drums are well mixed. They slip underneath Tori’s voice comfortably and bind it tightly, spinning in a dervish across the chorus. The boxy bassline synth below it is a nice counterpoint to the topline synths, which are surprisingly thinned out by reverb and EQ once the last chorus kicks in. It’s a good idea and a good choice, but not something you will remember once you stop listening.
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Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The sound effect at the beginning of the chorus is so bizarre that multiple times while listening to this, I literally looked around to check whether there was a pipe that was emitting steam, a large man sighing slowly, or a freezer opening. Aside from that, “Cut” is expertly crafted pop reminiscent of the early 2000s, each motif stitched together tightly with Tori Kelly’s adept voice. 
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Ian Mathers: I wish they’d built out the “singing the drum part” bit into the chorus, because it’s better and more distinctive than the actual chorus.
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Oliver Maier: Lots of fun if not especially sticky. Not often does a pop song feel like it’s distinctly missing a guest rap verse, but such is the void that opens up at around 2:18.
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Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: “I’m glad she’s having fun” is classic smug pan verbiage but this genuinely works because Tori Kelly is having a lot of fun! It still never breaks through to be anything more than really really good Timbaland/Darkchild cosplay, but I’m not sure if it aspires to anything greater either.
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