httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTuBuRdAyA
Each week on the FACT Singles Club, a selection of our writers work their way through the new music of the week gone by.
This week we squint into the blinding horizon of a new age to digest the first ever pop song written by artificial intelligence and the sound of everyone’s favourite robot duo teaming up with the king of pop debauchery.
The Black Beatles are popping wheelies on the zeitgeist, rapper Cakes Da Killa is on the cusp of breaking out, and we rate the return of Simian Mobile Disco and Dirty Projectors.
Tayyab Amin: I’m actually dizzy from the way the Weeknd veers between incredibly corny and graceful, hard-hitting lyrics: “Girls get loose when they hear this song / A hundred on the dash get me close to God.” It’s not how I thought this collaboration would turn out at all – it’s slicker, punchier and more considered than both artists’ typical offerings, and all the better for it.
The performance is better than the song, but that leaves you happy to hear whatever the next song is.
Mike Will adds synth-pop accents to the formula, Gucci shakes off some rust and the Brown boys keep growing as pop songwriters and – as proven by the title, hook and video – continue to pop wheelies on the zeitgeist.
The takeaway is I’d rather listen to a computer ape the Beatles than a current rock band, but I’d rather hear Rae Sremmurd take the piss out the Beatles than that.