Addison Rae’s 2024 began with a bang: screaming excessive of mentor-slash-bestie Charli XCX’s viral “Von Dutch” remix and letting unfastened a brief, fiendishly easy earworm into A.G. Prepare dinner’s Britpop spotlight “Lucifer.” Rae’s first solo observe of the 12 months, the shimmery Lanacore ballad “Eating regimen Pepsi,” turned her first Billboard hit, having acquired a tidy profile increase from its triumphant dwell debut on the Sweat tour’s MSG cease; her follow-up, the ridiculous-but-enchanting “Aquamarine,” performed like a Ray of Gentle deep minimize sung by Nomi Malone. And each singles arrived with elegant, humorous movies directed by Sean Worth Williams—cinematographer of Good Time, director of edgelord fairytale The Candy East—and creative-directed by Interview magazine impresario Mel Ottenberg, for that additional little bit of cool-kid clout.
So a remix of “Aquamarine” by Rae’s dream collaborator, Arca—titled, clearly, “Arcamarine”—must be one other simple win. In fact, it’s most likely Rae’s first actual miss this 12 months, a inventive misalignment that doesn’t make notably canny use of both musician’s expertise. There’s nothing offensive or unlistenable about “Arcamarine,” however that’s its first mistake: Each Rae and Arca have used their music to rage towards the boundaries of fine style, and “Arcamarine” sounds a bit just like the form of secure, nameless dembow remixes that main labels use to juice chart numbers. (Arca’s greatest collaborations, like “KLK” and “Watch,” power vocalists to suit themselves into her mutant engineering; on a remix like this, she’s restricted to working with pre-existing vocals.) The slower pulse saps “Aquamarine,” one of many 12 months’s higher pop singles, of its thriller and drama; when it ends, you’ll be able to’t assist however really feel form of blue.