What a waste of time. After the decent Demi Lovato collaboration 'No Promises,' Cheat Codes' efforts here – sharing the blame with Cade – are wholly uninspiring. Vapid at best.
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Sometimes a remix can improve a song no end. Sometimes it will just kind of exist. And sometimes they completely undermine any kind of artistic effort in the original track. Cheat Codes and Cade’s take on Maggie Lindemann’s ‘Pretty Girl’ is most definitely in the latter category. There’s no two ways about it: this remix is utter cack. ‘Pretty Girl’ in itself is quite a nice track, released by an 18-year-old Lindemann last year. Its style and message (“Don’t be so shallow pls”) may be nothing new but it has a very listenable, radio-friendly flow to it.
This remix, however, is a different story. This is easily one of the most soulless, generic, drab, vacuous remixes out there at the moment – quite an achievement – but, worse than just being terrible overall, it destroys the original and drains all life and emotion from it so utterly. If ever there was a track that was pop/trap-by-numbers, this is it. From the overclocking of the vocals to the godawful 808s to the intrusive riff accompanying the chorus, this is atmosphere demolition 101. It’s a shame that this particular iteration of ‘Pretty Girl’ looks like it might get a surge in popularity – cheers, half-arsed club DJs across the land – as the original is easily superior in every way.
Most tracks have at least some redeeming features. This doesn’t. I hope I’m never asked to review such trash again.
‘Pretty Girl’ (Cheat Codes & Cade Remix) is out now somewhere but it really doesn’t deserve any more attention so don’t go and try and find it for all our sakes
