Marshmello & Anne-Marie’s “FRIENDS” Song Review

Hello, I’m MusiCommentator, and…who thought this was a good idea?  Who thought it would be a great idea to make a song from the perspective of the friend zone-er?  No, not the one being rejected, it’s from the perspective of the one doing the rejecting.  Not in a sad way that makes them reevaluate their friendship, but…hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let me backtrack.

Marshmello, the producer of this song, is an up-and-coming EDM producer who has made some decent hits.  Recently, he has been doing a lot of work with other artists.  The first in this string of tracks was with new R&B star Khalid on “Silence”.  Khalid’s voice was as stunning as always, but the collaboration was boring to me.  Next was probably his most popular to date, “Wolves” with Selena Gomez.  Selena hasn’t had the best reputation on this site, but she surprised me in this song.  The lyrics were not anything spectacular for a pop song, but Selena’s voice actually sounded good.  Instead of opting for her half-asleep sound, she put her all into her voice, and that made this song good.  However, my favorite collaboration of Marshmello’s is the recent release “Spotlight”, featuring the late Lil Peep.  If you have never heard this song before, I would highly recommend you check it out.  It blends emo and trap seamlessly, and Marshmello’s production makes it the best beat Lil Peep had the honor of singing over.  Marshmello also did some work with Migos on the “Bright” soundtrack, and his hard-hitting beat made it an enjoyable song.  So, I’m not super fan of Marshmello, but if he releases a collaboration, you can bet I’m going to listen to it.

Now, I’m not too familiar with Anne-Marie.  I saw her in a short interview (they clickbaited me into it) so I looked up a couple songs in her category.  Apparently, she was in “Clean Bandit”, which was a big song of last year, and that’s probably how she got to work with Marshmello.  Again, I don’t know much about Anne-Marie, but she reminds me a bit of Bebe Rexha.  They have similar pop styles.  Therefore, I was not hesitant to listen to this song “FRIENDS“, but I was sad I listened to it after it was done.

Now, before I get into some lyrics, I’m just going to write.  I mentioned in the intro that this song is sung by the perspective of someone putting another person into the “Friend Zone”.  On YouTube, the music video even proudly proclaims that it is the “OFFICIAL FREINDZONE ANTHEM” in the title.  If you don’t know, if you ask someone out you like and they say “Oh, but we’re just friends” or “You’re like a brother/sister to me” or something along those lines, then you’ve been put in the dreaded friend zone, which is harder to escape than Guantanamo Bay.

But, is that a song people want to hear?  Do people want to jam out to someone rejecting another person and letting their feelings down completely.  If it’s a song about someone being heartbroken, that’s different, because everyone can relate to that and you are not rooting for the person that is doing the rejecting.  You can sympathize with the singer who is unintentionally whirled into a bad situation.  Who is rooting for the person, though, that is doing the heartbreaking?  In this song, it’s not even done in a way where the heartbreaker feels bad about not being able to reciprocate the feelings and possibly ruining a friendship.  They just brush it off and say that the lover is “acting crazy” and needs to stop.  Maybe Marshmello and Anne-Marie don’t know this, but liking someone is not something that is usually controlled.  You (or at least I) don’t hear many people going around and saying “Hm, I think I’m going to have a crush on that girl in a couple of days.  I better make sure to plan my schedule around it”.  Let me show you some lyrics so you can see what I’m talking about.

“You say you love me, I say you crazy
We’re nothing more than friends”

See, even in the first line, she’s calling the person that likes her crazy.  Sure, maybe saying you love someone without dating them is a bit brazen, but I’ve seen a lot worse.  Saying that is probably the mildest thing you can do in the friend zone.

“Don’t go look at me with that look in your eye
You really ain’t going away without a fight
You can’t be reasoned with, I’m done being polite
I’ve told you one, two, three, four, five, six thousand times”

This song just feels incredibly arrogant.  No, Anne-Marie, don’t assess the situation on a deeper level and try to understand what he feels so you two can solve it together in a civil way.  Just keeping saying you two are friends and he’ll eventually get the message.

“Have you got no shame? You looking insane
Turning up at my door
It’s two in the morning, the rain is pouring
Haven’t we been here before?”

I don’t know, maybe I’m not the right person to talk about a song like this.  I’ve never been in the position where I’ve put someone in the friend zone, so I have no idea how to relate to it.  I mean, I would be mad if people were showing up at my door at two in the morning.  But, I’ve never heard of a real situation where someone actually did that.  That’s something you would find in a movie or a sitcom.

“F-R-I-E-N-D-S
That’s how you f****** spell “friends””

Why do they censor the f-word like that in this song.  I didn’t spell it like that either, that’s how it is on lyric site I got this from.  If you’re a long time follower of me, you know I censor that word like f*ck, not f***.  That’s some good MusiCommentator trivia for you.  In the song, they actually put in a censoring beep like it’s from a reality television show, even on the explicit version.  She says “sh*t” like three times in this song and it’s not censored once.  I guess she’s just helping me keep my reviews family friendly.

Overall, the lyrics in this song are very short-sighted and self-centered.  I will give it some positives: Anne-Marie’s voice is good and carries some charisma that is tough to find in a lot of pop radio, and Marshmello lays down some good pop production.  But, these lyrics are terrible, and not because they’re stupid or do not make sense, but because they send a bad message.  This song is basically saying that you should not care about the other person’s feelings when rejecting them.  That might be somewhat of a stretch, but the message here is just one that should not be promoted.  Especially in a party song.  I’m going to give this song a 2 out of 5.  Do you agree?

Thank you for reading my “FRIENDS” song review. If you liked this review, make sure to follow my website, Twitter, and Instagram, like this post, and be sure to check in to read my future reviews. Also, if you have something you want to see me review, tell me in the comments. Until then, keep on listening to good music! I know I will.