WOULD YOU RATHER: A) Be a meatball stand at the end of IKEA? B) Be Iggy Azalea?
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[4.60]
Crystal Leww: “Really Don’t Care” is a kiss-off song in a love song’s clothing. Even some of the tropes are the same, just a little twisted, with Lovato singing about seeing a lover on the street except wanting to shove a finger in their face rather than be sad about it. It’s an OK approach, but there’s a tone mismatch, Lovato sounding cheery in those “ohhhhh-ohhhh-ohhh”s instead of vicious. Admittedly, I am on a huge Cher Lloyd kick right now, but I wish this was a Cher Lloyd track. Playing the role of supportive girlfriend never sounded as confident as Lloyd as she sneers, eye-rolls and sweetly eviscerates her friend’s man: “you should have picked that one / he’s cuter than the other.” This song needs that — more personality and less straight singing. This song needs more Cher Lloyd.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha and Carl Falk get a lot of things about pop. They really, really, really didn’t get “I Love It.” Insouciance turned identikit.
[3]
Brad Shoup: It’s “I Love It” with a touch more em-pha-sis and Lovato’s standard relevant-worship-band pop/rock treatment. Oh, and a label-brokered cameo from Cher Lloyd, who missed her chance to be Iggy Azalea by about eight inches.
[5]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: The scrubbed-clean electric guitar tone of mid-card pop hits (think Rita Ora’s recent “Never Let You Down”) kicks off a song that does no-one any favours. Cher Lloyd is yelling in her brattiest Wee Papa Girl Rapper voice, but it’s a moment of real charisma alongside Lovato’s manageable performance and the dull songwriting. Lloyd is the meatball stand at the exit of the IKEA: you don’t know why it needs to be there, but its presence tempers the homogeneity you just went through.
[2]
Thomas Inskeep: I don’t mean to diss Radio Disney, which can occasionally be a fine way to discover new pop records, but good lord this is the most Radio Disney-baiting generic turbo-pop.
[2]
Alfred Soto: “Really Don’t Care” is to “I Love It” what “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” is to “Hot Stuff” — a simulacrum whose parts were assembled for the quickest shelf life. The blaring, insistent sequencer matches Lovato, and Cher Lloyd is in there somewhere offering supporting perk.
[3]
Megan Harrington: This melody is so generic that I can’t even place the surely half dozen songs that also use it. Cher Lloyd completely upstages Demi Lovato in just nine lines.
[4]
David Sheffieck: Lloyd’s interlude is completely superfluous, but despite it “Really Don’t Care” continues Demi’s run of stellar singles. While the chorus isn’t quite angry enough to make it this decade’s “Since U Been Gone,” this seems to promise that Demi could reach those heights someday soon.
[8]
Anthony Easton: Such a happy song, and weirdly not even angry, though the hipster line comes a bit close. It’s a cheap trick, but one that is still effective.
[9]
Will Adams: Lovato’s voice is permanently set to “blare,” so it’s not surprising that it works much better with brat-pop instead of all those look-at-me-belt ballads. But even with production this bright and Cher Lloyd’s economical but effective contribution, “Really Don’t Care” suffers from the problem of Lovato’s artistry: it’s all so safe.
[5]