this is not making me excited about pharrell having done half this album.....
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 20 June 2018 05:44 (five years ago) link
No, correct YouTube link. Sample comes in at 1:01.
And Arlen Specter's "Wait a Minute" is sampled throughout Lemon.
It's a very odd sample choice.
― MarkoP, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 05:47 (five years ago) link
weird!
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 05:49 (five years ago) link
(I haven’t listened to the track yet; distracted by the fact that the album + merch bundles from her online store — which come with presale code for future concert tour — don’t ship to California for some f’in reason!)
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 05:52 (five years ago) link
OK – on first listen, it is an odd track, and doesn’t seem to feature Ari in a meaningful way? (It is also extremely Pharrell-y, for better or worse...)
Interesting that Nicki’s rap is upfront, in light of the discussion above.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 16:07 (five years ago) link
that's an extra track surely, one of your track 15 only-for-iTunes jobs.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 17:04 (five years ago) link
I also think the upfront rap creates a structural/aesthetic problem — because there song has no bridge, without the rap breaking it up in the middle, it feels particularly repetitive (chorus, verse, long chorus, verse, chorus, end).
It doesn’t help that the chorus is a repeated chant/vocal hook.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 17:05 (five years ago) link
xpost It’s track 3 on the album
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 17:07 (five years ago) link
Fan reaction in YouTube comments seems pretty harsh overall (esp. re: the town-hall guy sample).
I don't hate the track - I've listened to it a bunch of times now - but feels like kind of a misfire.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 17:34 (five years ago) link
xp gah!
― piscesx, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 17:40 (five years ago) link
nicki verse feels like a mistake
song is such a left turn i actually completely understand now why they'd have considered xxx for it, shipping it with a feature that communicates "left turn" and "underground" before you even hear a note of the song would have set expectations in a more reasonable place and x kind of had a monopoly on the venn diagram crossover space between "feels underground" and "does numbers"
ari seems to handle herself pretty well, the beat just doesn't feel like it's on the same level as "stir fry" or "neon guts" or "lemon" and the nicki feature kneecaps the vibe before the song even has a chance to reveal it
hope the other pharrell stuff is better and this one just got pushed out first because it was the one with space for a rap feature
― james brooks, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 19:11 (five years ago) link
hope the other pharrell stuff is better
imo basically no hope for this
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Wednesday, 20 June 2018 19:14 (five years ago) link
i would just really like to hear a new ariana grande record in my lifetime that doesn't have any max martin credits on it and one of the pharrell cuts hitting is the shortest path to that timeline
imma keep hoping
― james brooks, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 19:27 (five years ago) link
what's the issue with max martin? he doesn't have a particularly distinctive style & the tracks on Dangerous Woman that he worked on were largely great
― ufo, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 23:13 (five years ago) link
I hope they neglected to the clear the sample of the town hall guy; he sues and is granted an injunction; and the sample is removed from the track before the album is pressed.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, 21 June 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link
Like this but sounds so much like lemonNot just the sample but the beat and bass
― mind how you go (Ross), Friday, 22 June 2018 10:50 (five years ago) link
Chun Li reference is tops
― mind how you go (Ross), Friday, 22 June 2018 18:40 (five years ago) link
I hate to be a negative nelly, but even that aspect of the rap is a little disappointing to me... it's obv. very standard for a rapper to call out their current project on a feature, but I can't recall it being done on an Ariana track before; and it makes the feature feel even more generic (when Nicki's past appearances were so special).
It's a bit head-scratchy to look back at the below except from The Fader article, after hearing the track:
“The Light” was made with a guest feature in mind, and Ariana auditioned eight rappers for the spot — “I don't mean to sound like a terrible person, but I wasn't in love with any of it” — before turning to her friend Nicki Minaj. She texted Nicki the song and asked if she would be interested in the spot. In Ariana’s words, Nicki was like, “Ho-lee-shit-I-love-this,” and called her on up on a rainy morning at 5:00 a.m. to come hear the verse. “I went in my slippers and pajamas to the studio and she killed it,” she says. “That's what Nicki Minaj does, she elevates a record. If you're going to have a rapper on a song, they need to really really really be there for a reason, and she does that every single time.”
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, 22 June 2018 18:52 (five years ago) link
this song is dope and yes it sounds like the best songs on the last Nerd album
― billstevejim, Sunday, 24 June 2018 23:04 (five years ago) link
wtf is wrong with all of you
― billstevejim, Sunday, 24 June 2018 23:12 (five years ago) link
Otm. it's fine when Ari says the title phrase, but during the sung parts, I tried hard to mentally tune it out
― Vinnie, Sunday, 24 June 2018 23:36 (five years ago) link
Bud Light is coming, to give back everything the craft beer stole
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Monday, 25 June 2018 00:11 (five years ago) link
I love this song
― mind how you go (Ross), Monday, 25 June 2018 09:53 (five years ago) link
Bill otm
― mind how you go (Ross), Monday, 25 June 2018 09:55 (five years ago) link
Chun Li is not a villain so the lyric is nonsense
― mind how you go (Ross), Monday, 25 June 2018 10:31 (five years ago) link
From M. Bison's point of view, Chun Li is a villain
― Number None, Monday, 25 June 2018 11:02 (five years ago) link
The beat at the beginning of the track reminds me of this classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD5HfM3DZt8
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Monday, 25 June 2018 16:44 (five years ago) link
!!
ɹǝuǝʇǝǝʍs 🌫 https://t.co/kgaHLW2iQa pic.twitter.com/JOyKQL2iup— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) June 26, 2018
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Tuesday, 26 June 2018 04:07 (five years ago) link
frankie valli cover??
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 26 June 2018 04:37 (five years ago) link
Yes – it’s a fragment of “An Angel Cried,” titled “Raindrops” (it opens the album).
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Tuesday, 26 June 2018 05:00 (five years ago) link
I am so "here for this," as they say
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Tuesday, 26 June 2018 22:50 (five years ago) link
just heard "the light is coming" for the first time and... that sample sure is. uh. a choice. (that town hall is on C-SPAN, and it basically sounds like a Trump rally, complete with ranting about shipping out "the illegals")
― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, 12 July 2018 15:42 (five years ago) link
FYI, the “God Is a Woman” single drops today. Also she performed last night on the internets:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFjB7hJROyo
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, 12 July 2018 16:22 (five years ago) link
lol @ vovo
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Friday, 13 July 2018 04:19 (five years ago) link
Oh right, what I was here for. New song is a snooze.
I like it
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, 13 July 2018 04:31 (five years ago) link
I take it back, this song is great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHLHSlExFis
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Friday, 13 July 2018 16:14 (five years ago) link
Glad you came around :)
Yes, it's great. I have a few Hot Takes, but I'll just let it simmer for a while...
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, 13 July 2018 16:25 (five years ago) link
that guitar line at 69 seconds in (nice) is...from where? It's so familiar and I feel like I'm gonna say "duh" when I find out
― Simon H., Friday, 13 July 2018 16:46 (five years ago) link
I like it, but I'm a little disappointed that the lyrics boil down to "I'm really good in bed, huh?" instead of being an old fashioned takedown of patriarchal religion. it's the difference between wagging your tongue out at a tray full of donuts and actually having the temerity to lick them all. tbf a lot of people still find the song blasphemous, so some good work was done here
― the yolk sustains us, we eat whites for days (unregistered), Friday, 13 July 2018 16:48 (five years ago) link
wow that video is horrible
― Hall of Fam (Spottie), Friday, 13 July 2018 16:48 (five years ago) link
yep
song feels like "side to side" with its parts redistributed
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 13 July 2018 16:49 (five years ago) link
― Simon H., Friday, July 13, 2018 9:46 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
kinda like under the bridge a bit maybe
― Hall of Fam (Spottie), Friday, 13 July 2018 16:52 (five years ago) link
I don't think it's a sample. Could be wrong...
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, 13 July 2018 17:01 (five years ago) link
I don't think it's a sample either, it's just ringing a bell in a serious way.
― Simon H., Friday, 13 July 2018 17:12 (five years ago) link
FYI (if not already aware), the Ezekiel 25:17 monologue bit in the video was voiced by Madonna.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, 13 July 2018 17:43 (five years ago) link
(don't know who voiced the gonzo interrupting-groundhog!)
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, 13 July 2018 17:44 (five years ago) link
this and no tears remind me of late 90's britney/bsb max martin more than anything he's done since then
re: the video and i guess the song, it would be wonderful to see this much audacity placed in the service of ideas that aren't corny as shit
― james brooks, Friday, 13 July 2018 18:19 (five years ago) link
i actually like the bait & switch of the title/concept but as a piece of music i find it pretty uninspiring
― J0rdan S., Friday, 13 July 2018 20:32 (five years ago) link
― J0rdan S., Friday, July 13, 2018 4:32 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm, I haven't been able to figure out anything to say but "this is fine"
― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Friday, 13 July 2018 20:34 (five years ago) link