Ellie Goulding could not be reached for comment…
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[5.78]
Brad Shoup: Not a good year for songs that say “love me like,” I guess. It’s got some spring, but all the commandments turn this into more of a breakup song.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Friends thinks she’s a comer. I don’t hear it despite several tries. In the bridge there’s a hint of a snarl when she notes how the halfbacks don’t have time for those who don’t play the game, only she defines the game her way. This and the lightly strummed music produces a mild electric charge. When Jake Owen and Billy Currington sing about smart gals who wanna have a good time, Kelsea Ballerini is their model — smarter and more alert than they, just how they like it.
[5]
David Sheffieck: The lyric’s like the most self-confident dating profile I’ve ever read, and with both the bright and muscular production and Ballerini’s cheeky, cocky delivery behind it, that confidence feels fully earned. It’s maybe a bit too MOR for me to go crazy over, but I can’t begrudge anyone who does.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: Skittery percussion from 2000, soft-rock structure of little note, curious lack of scale — without the stats it wouldn’t sound like a hit, let alone a smash, but some throwaway album demo. Of course we all should support female country artists, but part of supporting them is repudiating a Nashville machine that denies women material with personality. I don’t like grocery-store tomatoes either.
[3]
Crystal Leww: About four weeks ago, Taylor Swift posted a short video on her Instagram of her singing along to Kelsea Ballerini’s “Yeah Boy,” which seems weird until you really think about it. Country music is the new crossover genre, and its young stars, from Andy Grammer to Sam Hunt to Maddie & Tae, will be actual pop stars in a year. Kelsea Ballerini has more in common with even Taylor Swift of 1989 fame than Kacey Musgraves, and the narrative of country needing saving from its bro-y self is two years too late. Ballerini’s got better tracks on The First Time (like the aforementioned “Yeah Boy”), but even here, in its most sugar-coated, most simplified, most basic, most generic way, Ballerini is a star. I love what Megan wrote about country two weeks ago: country music is about documenting small, human moments. “Love Me Like You Mean It” is a confident flirtation. She sweetly asks, “Are you just crazy, or crazy over me?” singlehandedly putting all dudes in their place about the insanity of women. Who needs outright subversion when it’s happening everywhere in country music?
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: First of all, this is a well-crafted contemporary country song: I can hear Reba covering it. But I’m glad Kelsea Ballerini got to it first, because what a fine career-launcher it is, the first debut single by a solo female to top Billboard‘s County Airplay chart since Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel.” Ballerini is a little less Underwood and a little more Swift, and whaddaya know, country radio could use someone to fill the gap Swift’s left at the moment. There’s just enough twang to sauce these lines, that should ring true to anyone who’s been in love, or wanted to be. I mean, “If you’re gonna say it, make me believe” well OF COURSE. I’m a hopeless romantic, and it would appear that Ballerini is too.
[9]
Megan Harrington: I like “Love Me Like You Mean It” pretty well and see no reason why it can’t be Ballerini’s “Love Story.” They’re both Prince Charming-style romances (though Ballerini’s doesn’t pursue narrative and so avoids the saccharine happy ending). But more than that, you can tell already that Kelsea Ballerini is ready to cross over and stay over, right? So much better to be the tomato in a salad, so much easier to stand out in an oversaturated field. What seals the deal is her album’s deep cuts, sharper and bloodier than her sweet smiling singles.
[7]
Natasha Genet Avery: Learning to use GarageBand usually goes something like this: you create a track called “Song1,” tinker with it for weeks, and then remorselessly move on, knowing that it’ll be another 30 tracks before you make anything decent. The production on “Love Me Like You Mean It” sounds like someone very impatient has forced their “Song1” onto the airwaves. The first verse especially is an amalgam of poor choices — an overly bright keyboard plopping down chords every other beat, stale mandolin arpeggios, and no bass to anchor the song. Leaving the listener without a single interesting rhythm to latch onto, “Mean It” leaves the weak verse melody exposed (the chorus is much stronger). What’s most disappointing is that the amateurish track buries Ballerini’s talent. I would have given the acoustic version a [7] — a half step down and three clicks slower, the stripped-down session lets her confident and emotive vocals shine through.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: I liked that chorus hook better when it was Like Bryan’s “Crash My Party.” No, wait, I didn’t.
[7]