The Singles Jukebox

Stuck in them 20-somethings…

[Video]
[5.89]

Will Adams: For last year’s Amnesty Special/The Prodigal Return of the Jukebox, we covered a similarly titled song that also reflected on the woes of being midway through your 20’s. I feel mostly the same about Rod Wave’s take: I sympathize with the sentiment, but my (slightly) older age adds a layer of naiveté to it. Docking an extra point for reminding me that I’d rather be listening to “Love Me Jeje.”
[5]

Nortey Dowuona: This samples “Love Me Jeje,” so it gets a [10] on principle. We can’t go above that, so just add another [10] to my previous score. Shoutout to a real black star.
[10]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Unfortunately, this isn’t bad enough to get me to do a self-righteous anti-sampling defence of a song that literally came out six months ago. Rod Wave continues to be more interesting in theory than in practice — for this to rise above the level of light curiousity I need a deeper sadness, some grandiose emotions rather than just tuneful wallowing. This is a good tuneful wallow, though!   
[6]

Dave Moore: Conversational R&B with several more coats of schmaltz than is strictly necessary — especially given he spends the intro mumbling like a misanthrope. Tonally it’s all over the map — he steadfastly offers his shoulder to cry on immediately after observing that the “dating pool is fucked.” Love you, too, baby. 
[4]

Taylor Alatorre: “The dating pool is fucked” fits the criterion of embarrassment used by Biblical scholars — no man would dare put something that corny on record unless it really meant something to him. And while that specific sentiment doesn’t strike at me, the diaristic impulse to debase oneself through ruthless self-disclosure always will. If the lack of a chorus in “25” seems like formlessness, then it’s an accurate representation of the years being reeled in — linear time is not forgiving enough to be lived in ABAB form.
[7]

Ian Mathers: So the slight structural weirdness of “Cold December” wasn’t a one-off, I guess. Production is still nicely appointed but as much as I appreciate Wave sounding like he needs to process some stuff, it doesn’t make for a compelling song. Especially when it feels like the track cuts off just before he digs into something more meaningful than “some shit don’t excite me no more.”
[4]

Mark Sinker: Age-counting songs allow you to summarise a sequence of moments with a little run of inventively pithy lines or anecdotes! Rod flubs this totally: cookiecutter for 21 and 22, two-years-one-thought for 23 and 24, then back to cookiecutter (except ironic). This is the model for the whole song: every device a missed opportunity. He has a nice voice and the ebb and flow with the backing singer is pleasant.
[4]

Katherine St. Asaph: It is much easier than I thought to turn “Love Me Jeje” into ’90s ballad mush.
[4]

Al Varela: The soft twinkle of the piano against the tap of the snares as pitched-up Tems croons across star-laden background is an easy way to win me over. Just off the production alone, I’m transported to a melancholic, nostalgic state of bliss. Rod Wave reaches the quarter point of his life, and he feels stuck in a limbo of disillusionment and uncertainty. The excitement of his early 20s is fading away, and he grapples with the idea that maybe he’s getting old, growing tired. There’s certainly a lot of life left to go, but speaking as someone who is also 25 as of writing this, you feel that shift. It’s a shift that you aren’t excited about… but you’re not scared of it either. Life simply continues. 
[9]