Everything Is 4 Opens with the Lush Disco of Lead Single
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Rolling Stone (3 of 5 stars) Everything Is 4 opens with the lush disco of lead single “Want to Want Me,” created dance-floor havoc with a few off-kilter EDM breakdowns and dips its toes into breezy Swedish island pop. Jason Derulo jumps into every track with equal enthusiasm, his reassuring voice adapting easily to each new setting and providing continuity across the LP. Billboard With another Top 10 hit under his belt, the pop singer has continued to find success by operating in two musical modes. Perhaps more than any other artist in pop, Derulo has created a perfect equilibrium between his two modes, allowing his split personas to feed off of and support each other. And it's working commercially Derulo has been tweaking his two modes just enough as they are used to offset each other, so that audiences never grew sick of either style. And the strategy has so far worked beautifully. Give this to Derulo: he's a survivor. He bounced back from a terrifying neck injury, and from the pre-"Talk Dirty" threat of monotony. Now he's outlasting his contemporaries by honing the pair of sounds in which he operates most effectively. Derulo may only do two things, but he does them very, very well. TIME Jason Derulo is getting ready for a hot summer People People’s Pick: Everything Is 4 (#6) Derulo’s fourth LP has a little bit of what its title promises – everything. Thriller-era MJ nods are sprinkled in with twer-tastic club jams. ELLE global pop phenom Harper’s Bazaar To hit play on a Jason Derulo album is to open up a can of earworms. Once one of his hook-heavy songs like "Talk Dirty," "Trumpets," "Wiggle," or, most recently, "Want You To Want Me" makes its way into your head, it's impossibly hard to get it out. Almost as hard as it is to keep the man in his shirt—not that anyone's trying too hard. Entertainment Weekly 12 Biggest Albums preview The man who taught the world to “Wiggle” returns to rule another summer. Entertainment Weekly Hit machine Star Magazine The superstar pop singer is hotter than ever Billboard Derulo doesn’t rap -- his newest material blends earnest soul with carnal beats and ’80s synth-pop -- but he’s in a class with guys like Pitbull and Flo Rida: hit machines who run on extreme discipline with a side of cheerful charisma. SPIN (8 of 10) For a man who’s best-known for singing his name enough times to fill an hour, Jason Desrouleaux’s music really ascended when he decided it needed no introduction. A chart hotshot who keeps his album running times as trim as his glutes and even slimmed down his surname to better grace a billboard (or Billboard), he gives the try-anything ethos a good name and pries it from the jaws of such pop baggage as a Cultivated Persona or a Social Media Presence. Half of Everything Is 4 is the bullshit-free Justin Timberlake album that those of us who prefer future sex to love sounds have been waiting for Everything Is 4 makes a compelling case for whittled-down songwriting discipline as its own reward Fourth-grade, retrograde, retro-pop even, pining quietly for the simpler time when pop albums were variety packs aimed at both Keith Urban and Stevie Wonder fans, Jason Derulo doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not. Say his name, say his name. VIBE The past 365 have treated Derulo kindly and this album marks a breakout moment for the flourishing artist. He explores different sonic landscapes, ranging from soft, pop ballads with Julia Michaels to funky Prince-esque tunes. Wiggle room aside, Everything Is 4 solidifies his ability to dance between genres effortlessly Stereogum The erstwhile Jason Desrouleaux has become pop’s most begrudgingly acceptable hitmaker, the high priest of faint praise. He makes soundtracking a Bar Mitzvah feel like a noble pursuit. The first half of the record, though, contains five tracks strong enough to outweigh the second half’s indiscretions. ..It’s an extremely solid run of songs, and it makes me wonder what Derulo’s discography would sound like if top-40 radio programmers didn’t encourage mediocrity with their ultra-conservative gatekeeping. Grantland Sex for the most iconic pop stars was as much about presentation and performance as it was actual sex. You flaunted some forbidden, unspeakable unknown that the rest of the culture deemed too taboo to confront directly, and frightened people out of their damn minds on the way to successfully seducing them. Jason Derulo has a different philosophy: If it looks like humping, and it sounds like humping, and it smells like humping, then you might as well remove the subtext along with all other forms of protection. Derulo approaches sex like Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia addresses the Constitution — as a resolute literalist for that booty. Newsday Jason Derulo has grown up. Derulo has hit his stride, easing back on all the sexy talk while still piling on the pop hooks. Derulo has also expanded his musical palette on "Everything Is 4," especially brushing off his Michael Jackson-inspired falsetto on the unstoppable "Love Me Down" and its "Off the Wall"-inspired funk guitar. "Everything Is 4" is a grand new start to the next, even bigger phase of Derulo's career, one where he can just let his music speak for itself. BOTTOM LINE A quantum leap forward in lyrics without losing his knack for a hook Boston Globe Despite three inconsistent records, Jason Derulo has become a bona fide hitmaker, with an impressive string of cleverly produced singles heavy on irresistible hooks and innuendo. His fourth release is his most engaging, filled with carefully designed fluffernutter dance pop. While the disc seems born more out of calculation than inspiration (some songs have five writers) there’s an undeniable appeal to the savviest tracks (“Want to Want Me”). Derulo’s singing is more relaxed and confident (less Auto-tuning helps), and when he gets his freak on (“Get Ugly”), it finally sounds as if he actually means it. Hit Fix R&B singer Jason Derulo banged out likable, big, broad pop for his fourth "Everything Is" album, but as contemporaries like Justin Bieber and Chris Brown can attest, being likable isn't easy. Here, it is. Radio catnip "Want To Want Me" is as family-friendly as a booty call gets. Derulo plays nice with every guest: he and Meghan Trainor purr at each other; "Broke" with Stevie Wonder and Keith Urban is corny as hell and still charms; Jennifer Lopez finally gets a choral melody deserving of her voice; Julia Michaels tames Derulo into more intimate space. Lyrically, he keeps things simple if not unmemorable, letting the production and mix tell the whole rest of the story. All Music outfitted with sharp hooks and slightly retro and lightly funky touches. Just the same, it's eager for commercial radio play with bounding energy brimming over somewhat heartfelt but ultimately frivolous pop constructions. No one's looking to Derulo for advanced stylistic hybrids or deep thoughts. When Everything Is 4 avoids those creative impulses, as it tends to do, it's easily Derulo's most pleasing work. Slant Magazine Everything Is 4 recalibrates a bit, updating Derulo's sound to current trends with 11 precision-tooled three-minute-and-change pop songs. But it also shuffles in nuggets of pop's past, revealing an artist with both a finger on the zeitgeist and an appreciation of his forbearers. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel It's obvious that no one in the world is more hellbent on becoming a pop superstar than Jason Derulo. With Derulo's silky falsettos, unshakable hooks and an '80s-pop arrangement reminiscent of Michael Jackson in his prime, "Want" is a leading contender for the most popular song of summer. But to be sure he attracts the widest audience possible, Derulo tries just about everything on "Everything." As a result, Derulo comes across more like a pop chameleon than a defined artist. Yet nearly every song, even "Broke," is instantly likable. If he keeps releasing hit songs at this pace, his pop superstar aspirations are bound to come true. That Grape Juice Pop maestro Jason Derulo has become quite the hit vendor in recent years Michigan Daily Jason Derulo released Everything is 4 at exactly the right time. The album is packed with songs ready to be blasted while driving with the windows down. The entire 11-track album, in fact, only boats two mid-to-slow tempo tunes, making it ripe for being the album of the summer. Billboard “Numbers: Jason Derulo’s ‘Want’ Wins” Derulo continues his hot streak USA Today Jason Derulo's new track is an '80s throwback Jason Derulo's Want to Want Me begins with a beat that could have come from some mid-'80s dance classic. But it's a falsetto that follows in the tradition of soul men like Smokey Robinson, Philip Bailey and Prince that makes the first single from Derulo's forthcoming summer album so irresistible. It also doesn't hurt that the synth stabs sound as though they come straight from Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me). Of course, like those other '80s favorites, Shalamar, Derulo's doing his dancing in the sheets. People A funky, throw-back sound Entertainment Weekly Jason Derulo a pro at crafting catchy pop tracks—and his latest single is no exception. “Want to Want Me” combines Derulo’s Prince-esque falsetto and a dancy 80s-pop beat to create a track make that’s nearly impossible not to dance to.