Since dropping their debut album Reflection at the beginning of the year, Fifth Harmony has been riding the waves of three successful singles with their most recent banger “Worth It” peaking at number 12 on the Hot 100 charts. The girl group has been pretty busy this year, bringing their first major headlining tour The Reflection Tour to the states this summer and having three singles go certified Platinum from Reflection, but they still made time to drop an unexpected smash for the animated sequel Hotel Transylvania 2. The Harmonizers were gifted with a surprise listen to “I’m In Love With A Monster,” an old-school jazz/pop hybrid with enough of a modern twist to get some love from the radio.
Produced by Harmony Samuels (Ariana Grande’s “The Way,” Ciara’s “I Bet”) the track has the girls sounding like they’re performing in a hopping jazz club over production reminiscent of the upbeat cuts from Christina Aguilera’s Back To Basics. From solid performances on X-Factor to more recent impressive live performances, Fifth Harmony is bursting with talent and the versatility to sound amazing across all genres. “I’m In Love With A Monster” has the girls treading new musical territory while adding a hint of maturity to the mix. Hearing Lauren start the song with so much attitude and character in her voice is great, and the song continues to go up from there. This is one of the only songs of their’s I actually listened to on repeat upon first hearing it. Not only is it catchy, but it’s unique and edgy, they’re serving the vocals, and there’s more Lauren!
I was also pleasantly surprised with the mid belts this song had. Ally & Camila were firing C#5s out throughout the whole song, and both threw in some great E5s. I’m also glad that Lauren & Normani also took part in the mid belt slayage, especially Normani, who belts in the studio close to never. They both had great C#5s as well, and I loved all of their voices in this song.
It’s so refreshingly different from their own music, whether they’re singing bubblegum pop, or R&B jams. I really, really, really like this sound for them. The little mature funk vibe this song had (which was ironic considering the title and purpose of the song). The music went great with their belty verses and Camila’s voice finally sounded in place. While I would’ve liked to hear more vocals from queen Dinah, I think their management has finally been getting their shit together on solo distribution and making up for lost vocals on Reflection.
The song spans the range of (G3) G#3-E5 (G#3 was the lowest sung note, courtesy of Normani & Dinah) and slays. I think there were some exclamations, but they most likely weren’t any of the girls, or they could simply be instruments. lly is a vocal standout as she adds her pipes to the track before it goes back to the hook. Let’s not forget about Camila, Normani and Dinah because they all add their own personality to the track.
