With last year’s excellent vocoder assisted Lovin’ Me, rookie group Fifty Fifty firmly put themselves on my radar. And while follow up tracks Higher and Tell Me didn’t do much for me, the potential I saw in the aforementioned stunner (one that in hindsight should have cracked the top 20) has kept me quite excited with whatever this group have got in store. New single Cupid may not have made the most instant of impressions, its surge in popularity has managed to capture many hearts. Mine included.
At its core, Cupid is a remarkably simple song, cruising along on a minimalistic bed of percussion and synths that perfectly convey a slightly more upbeat variant of the loungey tracks we’ve become accustomed to. In many ways this sets Cupid apart from the more recent noisy girl group releases but also makes it difficult to box. It lacks the dynamic nature of a track like Lovin Me but is also too upbeat for more traditional coffee house fair. But in many ways, this sense of flexibility lends Cupid an advantage. The ability to play it whenever and wherever without it ever feeling out of place. It’s a nice listen all the way through and while that may come across as a little boring, this sense of simplicity has actually helped in the long run, giving Cupid a surprising level of longevity.
In many ways this can be attributed to both the performance and the chorus. The girls sound great on the track, showcasing a wide yet wonderfully focused vocal range that really helps elevate Cupid into more than just a standard listen. It’s clearly a strength that Fifty Fifty have and they use it well. And that performance is also why the chorus has become such an ear worm. Sure, the hopeless romantic nature of the lyrics are relatable to a vast number of people and the sense of lift conjured by the production does wonders in the context of the arrangement, but in the end, it’s the girls excellent performance that really sells it. And though Cupid could have done with a little more variation and ambition, the final product is rock solid and has displayed a solid upward trajectory since its release. Something that makes me even more excited for the groups future.
Verses: 8
Chorus: 8
Production: 8
Performance: 9
Final Rating: 8.25 / 10
KBopped 