The Singles Jukebox

Teen drinking is very bad.

[Video]
[5.91]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: In 2014 this would be a Tumblr shitpost. A decade on, it’s a full-on pop hit? I shouldn’t be so charmed by something this lazy, but “A Bar Song” works because it’s just effortful enough – it has actual hooks outside of simply singing J-Kwon rootsily, which is a lot more thought than most people would put into their novelty “Tipsy” riffs. Even if you didn’t know anything about the golden era of St. Louis rap, this still works as a sturdy contemporary country sing-a-long – not to my taste necessarily, but compelling in its shtick.
[6]

Scott Mildenhall: Meme plinking is very average. This would make a decent Britain’s Got Talent audition, and perhaps that is a good framework for kickstarting a career full of more interesting work. There are signs of that in this content creation, but they’re nullified by an inverted zaniness that offers neither humour or humanity.
[5]

Alex Clifton: Here we have another viral TikTok country chorus, but Shaboozey scores better with me than Dasha did because “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has more than just a chorus. There’s even a bridge! Yes, it’s stomp-clap-holler music which had its heyday about 10 years ago, but sometimes you just need a good stomping. I don’t know if this is actually good, but it’s a fun time, and that counts for something.
[6]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: How did Shaboozey imbue “Tipsy” with so much sentimentality and heart? It’s not just the interpolation that makes this feel instantly familiar—Shaboozey’s vulnerability and working-class sensibility feel like the perfect palliative soundtrack to 2024 late-stage capitalism. 
[8]

Taylor Alatorre: A strong and perhaps insurmountable contender for 2024’s “I Can’t Believe This Hadn’t Been Done Already” award.
[7]

Katherine St. Asaph: One, here comes the two to the three to the four/dude makes getting tipsy sound like such a bore.
[2]

TA Inskeep: Is this really that different from a legion of “we’re all at the bar drinkin'” contemporary country hits? I guess it is in Shaboozey’s cadences, but let’s be honest, the “Tipsy” interpolation is wasted here. If this becomes a country radio hit, it’ll be a delightful surprise, but that doesn’t make it a particularly interesting record.
[3]

Will Adams: I was barely a tween when J-Kwon’s “Tipsy” hit the charts, but even then I recognized how well it captured the claustrophobic fun of a house party. Shaboozey’s take is tempered vibes and ultimately a downer, like that voice on your shoulder reminding you of the hangover you’re going to have the next day.
[4]

Isabel Cole: Finally, a song about partying by someone who sounds like he has been to at least one actual party in his life! Even better: a song about drinking by a guy I’m absolutely willing to believe knows just how nasty the inside of your mouth tastes with a real hangover, the kind no amount of water or ibuprofen will help you white-knuckle through. The fact that this doesn’t sound like a good party somehow adds to the appeal; rather than exuberant or giddy, it sounds a little blurry, mumbled, weary, half-assed in a lived-in way, an ode not to nights out with friends or the communal ecstasy of the dance floor but to getting so shitfaced you can’t see straight. You can almost see him, glassy-eyed, stumbling on the way to the bathroom across the sticky floor. You can definitely hear him, in that moment when the music drops out, standing outside the bar as conversations loop around him, sidewalk unsteady beneath his feet, thinking dimly he should probably start heading home but realizing the party is merely moving elsewhere, and if he’s already in for a penny, well…. That last Good Lord sounds like it means fuck yeah, fuck it, and fuck me all at once, which is more or less how I remember the nights that reached that point, too.
[8]

Nortey Dowuona: I bet you got some J-Kwon, you ain’t got no Yeezy? YOU’RE GODDAMNED RIGHT WE DON’T. THIS SONG IS IMMORTAL.
[10]

Joshua Lu: Empirical evidence that even the laziest samples can be overlooked if the song slaps enough.
[6]