Remembering nothing’s for free, then…
[Video][Myspace]
[6.09]
Dave Moore: Some more of that hyperactive pseudo-swing-era stuff I usually hate (guys, “Wobble” exists, you can stop now) done tolerably enough. Amerie’s multi-tracking continues to hit me harder than her personality and Lil’ Wayne continues to be. But at least it’s not Alesha Dixon.
[6]
Martin Skidmore: Wayne is actually rapping on this, thankfully — still autotuned, but not trying to be rawk. I am grateful. Amerie is at her best with big pacey percussive numbers, and this is one of those. It doesn’t have the might of the best Rich Harrison jobs, and there’s a rather weak break, but it’s on the right track, and she is good at sounding frantic, urgent, overexcited. A touch underbaked, maybe, but I like it.
[7]
Martin Kavka: I always used to think that Aaliyah was just a creature of producers. But given how poor Amerie’s performance on this track is, I begin to see how an apparently weak singer can heighten the effect of adventurous production.
[3]
Kat Stevens: I love Amerie to bits but I can’t help but think that this was written for Rihanna, who rocked the nasal-tuba-dancehall thing so well on “Lemme Get That”. Amerie’s angelic chirrup hasn’t enough sneering bite to tie it to the fidgeting track way down beneath it.
[7]
Keane Tzong: Amerie is traditionally at her best when her vocal performance comes undone enough to suggest that at any moment, she might give up on singing and just start shouting. “Heard ‘Em All” comes closer to that edge than the tepid “Why R U”, and the results are far more rewarding: it’s aggressive, challenging, and slightly disorienting (note, however, that the video version that excises Lil Wayne’s guest spot for an extra half-verse from Amerie herself, is way, way better than the Lil Wayne version).
[8]
Alfred Soto: “Gotta Work” and “1 Thing” with twice the energy and none of the spritz. Amerie puts the most attractive voice in contempo-R&B in the service of aerobicized propaganda that runs out of things to say before the two-minute mark. As for Wayne, he makes like Kanye West at the MTV Music Video Awards — so redundant and graceless that he almost redeems megalomaniac twaddle, like the verse about blowing out her spine so that she’s confined to a wheelchair.
[4]
Matt Cibula: This keeps threatening to bust out into Benny Goodman’s version of “Sing Sing Sing,” so best workout song of the year. But the real attraction here is that you can see the shape beneath the silicone, hear the heart under all the hyperactive burblage. No idea what it means or why. Also yay for the rap coming first and letting the song pick up momentum from there. Which it does.
[9]
Hillary Brown: Lil’ Wayne’s brief bit, which is exhilarating, gets an 8. But for the rest of the song, while it’s perfectly fine, you’re waiting for him to come back.
[5]
Pete Baran: Inexplicably makes me want to do the Charleston.
[9]
Jordan Sargent: Was there some sort of “rejected Rihanna demos for cash” bailout that I was not aware of?
[3]
Cecily Nowell-Smith: In my head this is massive, a juggernaut: a cannonade of drums, a battery of horns, Amerie switching between a valkyrie chromatic descent and an amazon yell. Yet every time I listen it’s a diffident disappointment, from that pussyfooting Li’l Wayne guest spot onward. It bounces where it ought to blast, skips where it should stomp, and all the swagger and snarl Amerie puts into her voice just seems to dissipate in the space between noises. Not to mention that non-sequitur veer into slow jam soul and out again, less a breakdown than a messy derail.
[6]