![]() ![]() And I just knocked off another point listening to Kanye go on and on. The verses ain’t so hot either, but Ne-Yo’s is the lone bright spot, not so much because Keri’s bad but that he’s better. All the lead up to that first chorus makes it feel like a hit, but when that monotonous refrain kicks in the whole thing sinks like a stone. ![]() Īl Shipley: It’s always confusing, if not downright frustrating, when this kind of starpower is assembled for a single, but no-one involved thinks to write a halfway decent hook. “Knock You Down” is admirable, but if it had the single-mindedness of, say, this week’s The-Dream/Mariah collaboration, it would be an easy. This disjointed, multivocal approach works within the postmodern bounds of hip-hop, but R&B still requires a dominant performer directing the music. The result is a song about an intensely personal emotional experience with no actual person experiencing the emotion. Hilson, Ne-Yo and West perform “Knock You Down” as if they are entirely unaware anyone else appears on the track with them. I’m no fan of Theodor Adorno, but his Frankfurt School critique of popular culture at least acknowledged that assembly-line production requires pseudo-individualization to work. But the track as a whole is oddly unfocused. Jonathan Bradley: All the ingredients are present for this to be an absolute monster: soaring synth stabs a valiant, heart-tugging lyric and top-notch performances from all three vocalists (Kanye West’s “This is bad, real bad/Michael Jackson” is possibliy the best of many highlights). I’ve rarely understood his appeal, but he communicates a depth of emotion here that I’ve never found in his solo songs. When the drum-and-bass rhythm comes in at 1:00, it’s an exhilarating rush. Martin Kavka: There’s a lot to hate about this: the first minute is filled with keyboard stabs that feel like Nazis goosestepping on your belly after a filling Passover meal, and at times the track seems to be too cluttered for its own good.
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