Review Summary: Representative of the American dance scene - take that as you will.
Krewella probably shouldn’t have made it this far. The trio is made up of two apparently horny and slutty girls (Jahan and Yasmine) who enjoy proclaiming their sexual aggression with lines like “I can't control myself, you got me feeling for your lust / One touch, will make me in love,” and the so-called “beatmaker,” who calls himself Rain Man and almost always appears in pictures with a bottle of booze. Basically, the group is three horny, drunk college dropouts who happen to know how to use Auto-Tune and have some knowledge of music production software. What’s more, all of their stuff fulfills countless EDM clichés. They’re not all that different from the next guy spending all his time partying and tapping away in front of his Macbook, and it’s difficult to understand exactly why they made it as far as they did. And yet Krewella has become one of the biggest acts in the American dance scene over the course of less than a year. People enjoy “anthems” like the dubsteppy “Killin’ It” and the pop-house tune “Alive,” as is apparent from the airplay those two songs receive on standard electronic radio. Somehow, the group has managed to overcome all factors going against them, and they’re headlining major electronic festivals and playing to cheering crowds all over the world.
And why shouldn’t they? After all, their
Play Hard EP is fun. Though it’s not inventive in any way, shape, or form, when it comes to the EDM market in America all that doesn’t matter. While this might sound like a long-winded preamble to a review that relentlessly tears into the trio’s music, I really have nothing against Krewella. I realize they’re not going to revolutionize the modern electronic scene with extremely well-crafted and insightful music, but I can’t deny that
Play Hard is all I can really ask for from a group like Krewella. The EP is six songs combining the current female vocal craze with the world’s infatuation with all things dubstep and house, and to be honest it does it quite well. “Killin’ It” and “Alive,” the two aforementioned songs, are basically representative of the “EDM scene” in America, and they’re pretty good choices to represent the environment. Though “Alive” is a bit boring and “Killin’ It” isn’t all that interesting after a few listens, they’re fun, they’re loud, and they’re poppy - and what more could anyone want from Krewella?
Of course, the EP as a whole isn’t really all that great aside from those two songs and “Can’t Control Myself,” an excellent electro house (moombah, if you will) banger. “One Minute” and “Feel Me” are uninteresting brostep songs that aren’t special except for Jahan and Yasmine’s unconventional vocals, and “Play Hard” is mild-mannered electro house. But, to be honest, the worse half doesn’t detract much from the EP overall. The best on this EP is decent, and the worst on the EP isn’t much worse than that. Much like the American dance scene, it’s formulaic, boring at times, and cliché for the most part. However, that all doesn’t really matter - it never intended to be anything else. Because, after all, it’s also loud, aggressive (in more ways than one) and fun. If
Play Hard is a representation of mainstream electronic music in America, it paints the music in a surprisingly positive light.
