The real star of British electro outfit Clean Bandit's 2014 collaboration with soul belter Jess Glynne isn't the redhead singer — although she does contribute a powerhouse vocal — but the insistent violin line that recurs throughout the giddy banger.
The real star of British electro outfit Clean Bandit's 2014 collaboration with soul belter Jess Glynne isn't the redhead singer — although she does contribute a powerhouse vocal — but the insistent violin line that recurs throughout the giddy banger. It's an instrumental flourish that elegantly echoes the first-love blushes Glynne gushes over, and has a leap-out-of-speakers immediacy that not only stuck in listeners' heads but stuck out, making "Rather Be" one of the most buoyant radio hits of the '10s. — Maura Johnston