Meghan Trainor – NO

“I’ll be honest, I physically cringed.”

Tim: Oh, do we have to?

Tom: New single, new album. And in the same way as Taylor Swift made the jump from country to pop, Meghan Trainor is trying to make the jump from her doo-wop, retro style to modern pop music. And…

Tom: …she hasn’t made it.

Tim: Hmm.

Tom: Or, rather, she’s made it into about the early 2000s, with a song that would have worked perfectly for Britney Spears but somehow just doesn’t work in her voice.

Tim: Thing is, I know it was largely derided, but I really loved Marvin Gaye, and a lot of Meghan’s previous tracks. A shift to this style: really not for me.

Tom: Brilliant introduction. Brilliant final chorus. Brilliant message and production. But… look, can I make the obvious joke?

Tim: Go on then.

Tom: The bits where she… I’m not sure it counts as rap. The bits where she talks. I’ll be honest, I physically cringed on that first spoken line. “Nah to the ah, to the no no no”. Seriously. Someone wrote that and thought “yeah, that’ll do”. It won’t do.

Tim: NO.