"Wasted" - Tiesto feat. Matthew Koma - Pop Song Review

Hot 100 rank: 49

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Many songs compete for song of the summer title, and it always surprises which songs get embraced. This year we had two songs competing for the title with Magic’s “Rude”, and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy.”  It was tossup year which one was the better of the two, but I had to pick one it would be “Fancy.” It was not a strong year for EDM singles for song of the summer title except for Calvin Harris; however, Tiesto decided to make his own bid for the song of the summer.  

Run those red lights of slot machines!

Tiesto hasn’t impressed me this year. I feel all of his competitors in the dance industry beat him on catchier pop songs with more interesting beats.  He first got a pop radio hit with “Red Lights” which had moderate success on the charts. "Red Lights" sticks with typical dance pop formula we all know very well. Catchy chorus, dance friendly beats, and short verses. Unfortunately, “Red Lights” is one of these pop song chords songs too. 

Pop song chords. Infecting dance music too.

 It is not that interesting musically it can sum up how pop music sounds in 2010s. It is complete with one of the stupidest choruses I have heard in a pop song in a long time. “We can run them red lights…” Really? This is what happens when you run a red light.

“Red Lights” always sounded to me like a blander Calvin Harris track.

This brings me to “Wasted” the second pop single from Tiesto’s latest album ”A Town Called Paradise” featuring Matthew Koma. First impressions of "Wasted" is that it is a crowd pleasing edm pop song, but that is really all you can good you can say about it.  It certainly has a catchy chorus.

Production wise, “Wasted” starts out with an acoustic guitar stringing along with crowd noises, and dogs barking mix in there. I actually like this production here; it brings a nice summer feeling of being outside going to park vibe. The song clocks in at 112 beats per minute which is slower than a typical dance song which clocks in at 128 to 130 beats per minute. Tiesto gets points for doing something different with the speed of this song.

The edm drop here is particularly strong here, and by comparison is way harder than “Red Lights” was.  Tiesto adds some “oh(s)!” in the drop to provide crowd chanting effects.  After the first verse the chorus is placed on top of the edm drop.

Matthew Koma sounds like a girl in this song.  I don’t know if it was Tiesto idea to raise the pitch on Koma’s voice, or Koma decided to have a girl voice on one song.  It sounds like to me that Koma’s voice was raised a few pitches in post production to make him sound preachier.  I would have preferred Koma use his regular singing style like for example on  Zedd's "Find You."

“I like us better when we're wasted,
It makes it easier to fake it”

Lyrical analysis: Tiesto and the narrator make it very clear that they prefer to be drunk to have fun. The narrator doesn't care what happens tomorrow as it is all about this moment.   A word of advice, make sure your shoes are off before something bad happens.

“The only time we really talk,
Is when our clothes are coming out”

The narrator doesn’t know this girl well enough for a conversation and instead wants to make love with her. 

“I like us better when we're wasted
It makes it easier to say it
Lay all your laundry on the bed
And then I'll lay it in instead
I like us better when we're wasted”

Before we get to smush time we have to finish this chorus the narrator proclaims!  I wish it was about that. Instead the narrator states he is drunk and he find it easier to talk about his problems in this condition. He gets the realization that everything is better in this condition. #whiteboywasted

One side note when Matthew Koma sings "whoa" he sounds like a fast food order box . This happens before the first edm drop.  Way too much pitch adjustment in this song, Koma singing must have been all over the place. 

“You are my glass half empty
Sipping my ocean dry”

Seems like the conversation hit a snag with this girl he is talking to tonight.  The significant other is doing all of the talking while the narrator is bored to tears. He receives no enjoyment from this conversation. As Kesha demonstrates below this is what essentially he is hearing  all night. 

Talking nothing but BLAH BLAH BLAH.  

 “Emotionally spend me
Til none of our planets could align
But I could stand you one more night”
 

They have different personalities sober, and both have conflicting interests.   The secret ingredient, alcohol, fixes this problem. Happily ever after ending is coming, right?

“You are a catch 22, either way I miss out.”

Darn it! I was hoping for the happy ever after ending following the conclusion of verse 1.  What’s the problem, Matt? I think you pick the wrong girl at this party to talk too.

“All of the grief I give you
It's energy I can't live without
But I could stand you one more night”

In the first line here at least you admitted that being together in the long run is a bad idea.  In these lines the narrator admits the stress of the relationship is something he can live without.  The narrator admits that he has problems as well, and they can try being an item.  

The video shows a bunch of girls having the time of their lives, but here they show a bunch of desserts too.

Looks delicious. I approve of this party so far.

 The video shows the  typical singing in the hairbrush, and mirror moves after they had a few beverages.  Other than that it isn’t much going on in the video except girls jumping up and down which what I was expecting for a song like this.  Party on with those desserts.

The audio quality for this  hair brush is incredible, Diane.

If this song had a  smell through my laptop speakers it would be a frat party. The smell is cheap cologne, and booze all over the place. The song knows it purpose for the spring/ summer season for being cheap easy listening crowd friendly edm pop music. I feel the lyrics only really work with college age kids and daylong parties.  

Ironically the song was originally written as “Naked” which would flow a lot better with the narrator intentions. I guess they had to change it for the US radio before releasing it. 

Production: Sounds like summer song. It is the real positive to it. 

Vocals: Matthew Koma is too pitchy here. 

Lyrics:  Meh on the lyrics.  Nothing too special here.

Memorable: I highly doubt any of you remember this song from over the summer.  If you did I'll be amazed. 

Final score: (2.5/5)