"Lovesick" (stylised as "Love$ick") is a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
by
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
-born music producer Alex Crossan, under the alias
Mura Masa
Alexander Crossan (born 5 April 1996), also known by the stage name Mura Masa, is a Guernsey-born electronic music producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Crossan is best known for his song "Lovesick (Mura Masa song), Lovesick", which ...
, featuring vocals from
ASAP Rocky
Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper, music producer and record executive. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a membe ...
. It was released on 30 September 2016, by
Universal Music
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...
,
Polydor
Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...
and
Anchor Point Records, as the second single for his
self-titled debut album.
Recording and background
Crossan said about the recording of "Lovesick": "The first thing he
[ASAP Rocky
Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper, music producer and record executive. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a membe ...
] said was that it made him feel really tropical, like he was in Ibiza or something and I was like, 'OK let's roll with that'. But then I said to him that it was about being stupid and feeling lovesick and hanging over a girl and he brought that to it as well. It was super fun, it was wild, we hung out, smoked cigarettes, talked about fashion and
Tame Impala
Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring act, Tame Impala consists of Parke ...
."
Composition
"Lovesick" is a vocal version of a previous instrumental track titled "Lovesick Fuck", which was released in his debut
EP ''Someday Somewhere''. Crossan said that "the track originally was about sex and how I was feeling after a particularly empty encounter with a friend told through a kind of twisted-
pop,
calypso,
hip hop dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
track".
Rachel Aroesti of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' called the original instrumental "jazzy" and "tropical". Jon Pareles wrote for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that the song is "built on a Caribbean-tinged beat and a four-bar loop of a piano that soon switches its sound to steel drums". Collin Robinson of
Stereogum
''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine.
''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...
opined that "Rocky injects the bouncy percussion and steel-drummed Caribbean vibes with some steez". ''
Rap-Up
''Rap-Up'' is a magazine launched in 2001 by founder Devin Lazerine. The publication was originally a website devoted to hip hop, until Lazerine decided to pitch the possibility of a magazine to several publishers. The magazine is focused on the ...
'' described the song as "soulful and electronic, calypso-tinged, rap-infused". Eve Barlow of
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
called it "
airhorn
An air horn is a pneumatic device designed to create an extremely loud noise for signaling purposes. It usually consists of a source which produces compressed air, which passes into a horn through a reed or diaphragm. The stream of air cause ...
-assisted calypso".
Critical reception
El Hunt of ''
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
'' said: "No revolutionary new angles come from this guest spot, but it's a statement of intent all the same".
Remixes and samples
The song has been remixed by
Four Tet
Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ( ...
and Mumdance.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{authority control
2016 songs
2016 singles
Mura Masa songs
ASAP Rocky songs
Calypso songs
Polydor Records singles
Universal Music Group singles
Songs written by ASAP Rocky
Songs written by Mura Masa