The Singles Jukebox

On balance yes, maybe better off alone…

[Video][Website]
[3.83]

Alfred Soto: The Weeknd’s influence manifests itself in a new generation of echo-indebted singers. “If you treat me right, I’ll give you everything,” Trevor Daniel promises or threatens over a pretty guitar sample and sinister electro fart. Secondhand menace is so tacky. 
[4]

Iain Mew: The delicate xx instrumental figure and close-up singing work well for emotional intimacy, as ever. Trevor Daniel weaponises that in a steady flow of self-pity and a sudden boundary-engulfing gush of commands and of NEED, towards… his new partner? A girl he saw on the subway? The total self-absorption makes the stalker reading so easy I’ll allow the possibility that it might be deliberate. It doesn’t make the song’s creepiness any more pleasant to experience.
[2]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: It’s been done to death, in song and in real life: self-impressed wallowing as a means to attain intimacy. Trevor Daniel succeeds because his lack of talent matches the trash intent. The triplet rapping is awkward and rote, and the high-pitched singing leaves the song inert: I believe the emptiness of his posturing and his promises.
[6]

Brad Shoup: The way he chomps onto “talk to me” makes me think of Annie Lennox. And the restless emotional whiplash of the verses makes me think of freestyle. Come-ons can be grim, I suppose.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: For a second it really, really sounded like Trevor Daniel had just interpolated “Here Comes the Rain Again,” about as far as you can get from this mewling, mushy vocal; the fact that he only half-interpolates it might actually be worse. At least I know that, previous worries aside, there is a limit to the bullshit I will tolerate if attached to a moody synthwave arrangement.
[2]

Will Adams: That “talk to me” not being an Alice Deejay quote is probably the most upsetting thing about this. Impressive given everything else: the marble-mouthed vocals, the ghastly pitch-shifting of said vocals and the creepy ultimatum of “if you treat me right, I’ll give you everything.”
[3]