The Singles Jukebox

Sadly this one appears to have sunk with most of us.

[Video][Website]
[4.38]

Katherine St Asaph: Where Mendler’s last single here took no steps outside formula, this does — unless the formula for kids these days involves seapunk, trap, Daft Punk vocoders and Serenity Rose Quartz, which it may well. The conceit she’s working with evokes Azealia Banks but I bet the actual touchpoint is Ellie Goulding; the melody she’s working with evokes “Genie in a Bottle” but I bet it’s fucking “Mirrors” (will it never end). But I’ll always be charitable toward Disney stars getting more creative, as well as toward women’s lyrics on anhedonia.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: The vocoder doesn’t code “underwater,” it codes “thinks she’s written ‘Hide and Seek’ or something.” She hasn’t.
[4]

Olivia Rafferty: If this is a move to shake off the Disney Channel letterman jacket, it’s worked, but I can’t call it a complete success for Mendler. Her vocals get usurped by woolly vocoder treatment, meaning the whole song only comes into focus with Kaiydo. The track has a crunchiness and groove, but Mendler loses grip on the role as main attraction in “Atlantis,” instead becoming another warm layer that washes away too easily.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Mediocre “quirky” pop with accompanying mediocre rap break, that wants to be a Pitchfork BNM track so bad it smells of desperation.
[2]

Claire Biddles: Everyone involved in “Atlantis” sounds like they’re about to fall asleep. The skittering drums and warped vocals combination was interesting a few months ago but it’s so overused now, and this feels listless and dull. The chopped up vocals after the chorus call to mind the similar (better) wordless section in Troye Sivan’s “Youth,” but where that felt like an expression of pure, exciting abstract emotion, this feels like Bridgit has just forgotten what the song’s about, or gone for a nap.
[2]

Ryo Miyauchi: Attention grabbing as the opening lines are, it’s really about how Spencer Bastian and Mischa Chillak play around on the production console. They try out every trick like they’re trying to bring pieces of dance-pop from the past 5-7 years: bass rumbles, screwed-up and over-layered vocals, and chops of Bridgit Mendler’s pitched-up voice as a hook. It’s all a delight until Kaiydo crashes the party.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Roger Ebert complained about Hollywood scripts in which actors and dialogue were inserted after the special effects had been blocked. Why this offended him baffles me. In the old days, “Clark Gable” was the special effect and writers created pictures around him. So in theory I wouldn’t have minded Bridgit Mendler’s use of an underwater effect to simulate Atlantis or something if she had a personality.
[2]

Will Adams: The comparison of sunken love to both a colloquial image of sleeping with fishes and a submerged utopia is sad enough, especially when delivered through the cold sum of vocoders and down-pitched vocals. It’s Kaiydo’s futile attempt to pull Mendler from the depths, though, that makes it heartbreaking.
[7]