Greyson Chance - Hellboy - Single [Review]

At some point this year (2021), fans of American pop singer and songwriter Greyson Chance can expect a follow-up to his 2019 album portraits, although we don't yet know precisely when. (He did hint at the possibility of that being revealed soon, however, so we might be getting an update soon.) "Hellboy" is very likely yet another single from the album, and over the last year to year-and-a-half, Chance has released a fairly long string of songs and singles, and it's unclear which ones that we can expect to be featured on the new album or if, as was the case with many of the singles released prior to portraits, they will remain homeless as standalone singles. We have so far gotten "Boots," "Dancing Next to Me," "Honeysuckle," "Athlete" (released to promote the television series Love, Victor), "Bad to Myself," "Holy Feeling," and now "Hellboy." Of all of them thus far, I think that "Honeysuckle" remains my favorite, but "Hellboy" definitely delivers. For one thing, the suggestive lyrics are, to put it simply, hot as hell: "If you don't know how to touch it, let me educate ya," he teases, closing the first verse, and he later, in the second verse, confidently asserts, "I can show you things that'll make you think you're dead in heaven. Have me for dessert. I'll have you on your knees. You'll be begging for me, hot and heavy in the morning." The song definitely offers up some of Chance's most risqué lyrics to date, although his portraits track "black on black" makes for a pretty close contender ("...damn, boy, you got me fucking on my knees"). The song is a poppy tune with a little bit of funky Maroon 5-esque flavor, and my favorite part is when Greyson is... rapping, I guess? He, half singing and half speaking, pretty rapidly sings in the post-chorus, "Hands tied, bite your lip. Green light, flip and twist. Dark magic, red boot kick. I'm a hell boy, I'm a hell boy. Your eyes on my hips. Damn right, you want this all night, yeah. I might give you hell, boy. I'm a hell boy." I really don't think that I need to spend any time discussing what this song is about because I think that it's rather obvious. I find that post-chorus to be the catchiest part of the song, and I also love the bridge in which Greyson, in somewhat muffled vocals, sings in French: "Le paradis n'est pas réel sauf si tu es avec moi" (which translates to "Heaven is not real unless you are with me"). (I love it because French is such a beautiful and sexy language.) It's definitely a fun song although, as I said, not my favorite of the singles so far, and I am looking forward to hopefully getting an album announcement soon!