Zibra – “Wasted Days” (Singles Going Steady)

Timothy Gabriele: In the spirit of our era, there are two potential readings of this music video; living for the love of the common people or mocking them in their delight. The chord progression is similar enough to the American Authors’ “The Best Day of My Life” that it could even substitute as a lazy inversion of it, complete with obnoxious hooted hook. “Best Days” vs. “Wasted Days”. Does the band care? Is there any intentionality behind this other than for the song to grind itself into you? If in six months this is playing at a pub just like the own depicted, will the mission have come full circle? Whether or not we all fall down, time will tell. [5/10]

John Garratt: “Wasted Days” is a snapshot of our current pop culture. Musically, we are stagnant. In all other aspects, we like to ogle over the cutesy things of yesteryear like Connect Four. Put it all together and it’s a wasted 3:19 that’s not even worth any irony points — not that those ever mattered in the first place… [2/10]

Ryan Dieringer: Since when have references to drug use become so overt in pop music? First there was Miley’s pill-based VMAs aesthetic, then Weeknd’s “I Can’t Feel My Face”, and here now we exhibit C: Zibra’s “Wasted Days,” where the hook suggests we “pop some pills and we’ll all fall down”. On such songs, even if a dark side is hinted at, as when Weeknd sings, “she said, you can’t do without it”, the nature of pop is that you only remember the elating power of the hook. Pop music doesn’t allow for the nuance of message as in something like Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools”, a dark portrait of alcohol abuse. Instead, we are inundated with images of colorful capsules, at a moment when pharmaceutical heroin use is epidemic. I think that’s a shame. [4/10]

SCORE: 3.66