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The Singles Bar: Joe Jonas – “See No More”

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Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 06/03/2011 at 10:50 AM Reviews

If you’ve been spending your days replaying the five seconds of Joe Jonas’s teaser that contain his voice, you can wait no more. Although “See No More” doesn’t drop on iTunes until June 13, the solo Jonas premiered the full track on radio today. Listen below:

Joe Jonas – See No More by KylarLennox

Chris Brown co-wrote “See No More,” and it shows: like Brown’s last string of singles, it’s an attempt at summoning up all the year’s songwriting trends to conjure a hit from air. The exact circumstances are different: Brown needed to escape his post-Rihanna jackassery, while Joe’s just trying to tiptoe out of the JoBro shadow.

But the end result is much the same. The verses of “See No More” borrow Ryan Tedder’s signature faraway, crashing drum sound from “Battlefield” and every OneRepublic song. Then the chorus sweeps its way through clouded-up strings, harmonies, and synth flourishes of the sort that Rihanna, Chris Brown himself, and even B-listers like Shontelle have turned into radio gold. Meanwhile, the “I don’t wanna wait” lead-in just gives us Paula Cole nostalgia, which has got to come back around eventually. It all sounds good, but in the way that reminds you of ten other hits per minute.

That said, two things do stand out in “See No More.” The first is that twitchy plinking we heard in the promo–it’s a shame when it’s muffled underneath the chorus. The second, undoubtedly to fans’ delight and potentially to career benefit, is Joe Jonas, who’s got an assertive, falsetto-enhanced voice that recalls Chris Brown without the baggage.

This is the exact vocal type, mind you, that crowded late-’00s pop/R&B–take that year when Jay Sean, Jason Derulo and friends cornered the market in Brown’s abusive absence. “See No More” could’ve come out then. But hits have been built upon much shakier voices than Jonas’s, and it can only help Joe that he’s the best part of his own track.

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