#the vocal performance in this song is really spectacular too. the backup singer that goes 'new york city!' at 2:16 is so good

[meezer]

when I was a kid playing GTA san andreas and watching my brother play, I did not like this song and I didn't really get it. but now I like it. on a bad day it might even make me cry

BUT. 'three cigarettes in an ashtray' and 'the letter that johnny walker read'? I hated those then and I still hate them. [doomguy pic] me in hell: WHERE'S JOHNNY WALKER OF 'THE LETTER THAT JOHNNY WALKER READ' FAME

[thesinglesjukebox]

BECK FT. ROBYN & THE LONELY ISLAND - SUPER COOL

[4.31]

Now presenting a lineup probably thought up previously by some fanfic writer, probably one of us, in 2009...

Julian Axelrod: Finally, a song 10-year-old Julian, 15-year-old Julian and 23-year-old Julian can agree on. [7]

David Moore: Ha, pegged this as the Lego Movie sequel immediately! I would say "I must have kids," heh heh, but no, it's just me -- c'mon, my son is terrified of all screen media, my parenting is on point. (Wait, Beck is on this?) [5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The best thing Beck has done in a while -- and I actually like late period Beck. [8]

Alfred Soto: Confusing pastiche and parody with a L.A. nihilist's glee, Midnite Vultures had several tracks that borrowed Peter Gabriel's "Steam," added thicker booties, and painted a Morris Day face on them. If "Super Cool" is parody, the target's a mystery; if pastiche, well, Robyn and Beck can't light novena candles to their cooler younger selves. Or can they? [5]

Ian Mathers: Beck has fallen off so hard that even with these collaborators I was bracing myself, but luckily enough his vocal performance here seems to at least remember that Midnite Vultures was a thing; meanwhile Robyn doesn't have much to do but does it well, and the Lonely Island make me wish someone would give them a budget (again; if you haven't seen Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, you are in for a treat). [7]

Jessica Doyle: If you find The Lonely Island funny on repeat (and I do), most of the pleasure comes from them taking a pop-musical idea, immersing themselves in said idea, throwing in some mental trash, and serving up something gleefully askew. That's what I thought, at first, was going on here: The Lonely Island bringing in Beck and Robyn to help them channel Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT, for some reason, and since to this day I will sing "You've got sixty percent less fat than potato chips" at the drop of a hat, I was all for it. Especially once we got to "Like a stray dog on the freeway, we'll fly." (The husky we adopted two weeks ago has so far wiggled out of her collar, bolted for the front door and the garage door, destroyed the back screen door, and managed to escape a locked, chained gate at the local dog park; my flinching at that line is not a problem but a salute.) But then the song degenerates into two --two! -- verses about reading the end credits, and those verses are not funny, completely unconnected to the preceding setup and nauseatingly bland. This is exactly the kind of schlock The Lonely Island used to refrain from delivering. [2]

Thomas Inskeep: Well, by sticking the Lonely Island on here with a pair of "rap" interludes about film credits, whoever put this song together ruined it nicely. Beck sounds like he's having fun, and Robyn sounds like -- well, a backup singer getting her big break (she deserves better) -- but without editing out Samberg et al., this is fairly unlistenable. [4]

Edward Okulicz: Doing verses about credits is super dumb (but then again, I thought the verse/chorus disparity of "Jack Sparrow" was stupid and not funny at all) and meta in a bad way. But that's the only thing I don't like and both of those bits are over quickly if you want to tune out and dream of Andy Samberg's ridiculous yet beautiful face, which I don't always. Beck's verse is like he mashed up "Mixed Bizness" and "Nicotine & Gravy," which are two of his most fun songs, and the chorus sounds terrific on the radio -- I heard it in a shopping mall on the weekend and it really made me want to buy things. Not necessarily Lego, but not not Lego! [8]

Iris Xie: Andy Samberg doing an E-40 impression and Beck repeatedly singing "everything is super cool" makes me panic from the suggestion that my genuine joy of childhood can be seamlessly reproduced with no errors. Except this is all glitches. Cheery, forced conformity that rips open itself in a twisted form would be cool if it were more self-aware. This is late crisis capitalism -- get me out of here! [0]

Jonathan Bradley: Seeing "Everything is Awesome!!!" in the context of The Lego Movie didn't make it a better song, but it did make it a more awesome one -- the film translated a lot of that infectious idiotic glee. I don't know if, in context, "Super Cool" actually becomes super cool; out of, it's awfully thin. Beck has the ability to be silly, which makes it all the more unusual how stiff his funk is here. Robyn is at her worst when she is silly -- that's how "Konichiwa Bitches" happened -- so it's for the best that she sticks to hook duty. (The Lonely Island is meta. You know how it goes.) [3]

Katherine St Asaph: Beck does his best Kaytranada, Robyn is dissolved in the beat like she's Cassie, and then The Lonely Island show up, in case you were into it, to remind us it's all a joke. [5]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I'm not a fan of musicians who can neatly and primarily be labeled "comedy." Their existence and exultation highlight an odd, prevailing notion that art (particularly music) must be serious in order to be taken seriously, and that comedy is something else. There's also the fact that everything is funnier when you aren't going into it expecting to laugh. All this said, The Lonely Island's feature here is abysmal even for their low standards. Haha yea they're pointing out the not-so-exciting act of watching the end credits! Hilarious. At least "Everything is Awesome" featured a "XD so random!" element that didn't feel so tethered to when it played in the movie. As with many songs for soundtracks, children, or soundtracks for children's films, "Super Cool" finds every artist's personality here sanded down to the point of non-existence. And for what purpose, exactly? Accessibility? A digestible message? Hooks that need to be watered-down in order to sound peppy? Kids deserve better animated films than The Lego Movie franchise, and they certainly deserve better music than "Super Cool." [0]

Alex Clifton: I am honestly too old for this shit. [2]

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