When I began this segment last week, I warned that not every song featured would be good. This column isn’t really a source of recommendation but rather commentary instead. I know it’s called “song of the week”, but not every featured news story is a positive one. This isn’t about the song that is the best of the previous week, but instead a song that has been widely discussed and sent around.
This labor day, we will look at a song that was everywhere last week that is really splitting the music scene. “Hey QT”, by, well, QT (the self referential song is a project by A.G. Cook and SOPHIE). It feels like its intentions are to try and bring back the house hits we fell in love with back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, much like the amount of artists that are bringing back the sounds of disco, nu wave and synth pop. If that is the goal, then the effort is respectable. However, the result is not something I am fond of at all. In fact, many other songs may have come out the last week, but it is this song that I cannot get out of my mind and it’s for the wrong reasons.
First off, the very first few seconds are enough to make me feel annoyed and not want to give the entire song a chance. Once I do come around and sit for the entire duration, I hear a basic electronic song that doesn’t even work sonically. It isn’t the genre that I’m not a fan of. If anything, I am the first to admit that I have phases where I cannot stop listening to one hit wonder club hits (4 Strings “Diving”, Gigi D’agustino “I’ll Fly With You”, First Base “Can You Keep a Secret” and more). I feel like the best of these songs are indeed simplistic yet rejuvenating. They are digital on the surface but earthly underneath. With Hey QT, once the song begins, you basically hear what you are in for right away. There is never an idea that takes over the song from its simple synth pattern and repetitive lyrics. With vocals that sound like Yolandi Visser but without the right contrasts to make a voice like that work, Hey QT is less of a dance hit and more of a test. The song gracefully ends as obnoxiously as it starts with a sped up vocal line that feels more like a warning shot instead of a pump of adrenaline.
Perhaps it is innocent and its intentions are sincere, but this song hasn’t united like the may club hits it inspires to be. If anything, with the vocal reactions it has received online, it has split people up instead. Some people are loving this song, and others are being quite harsh about it (like yours truly). While it isn’t an offensively horrid song, it still feels insanely lazy. The percussion feels lighter than a feather for a dance hit; How motivational can that be? The lyrics are repetitive, which can sometimes be passable with a dance hit but not always (especially not when part of that repetition is the abrupt “Hey QT” yell). The synths are far too minimal in texture, as there is already a lack of depth with the song to begin with (never mind how apparent this void is with such bore-worthy chords). Whether this song was meant to be great or if its goal was to be talked about, the latter definitely worked out for QT. Maybe they can truly channel the house hits of a decades past much better in the future, but for now, their forceful introduction of QT called “Hey QT” (so we are thus obliged to welcome them even when we complain) is too weak of an effort.
