And yet we prove able to resist…
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[4.25]
Patrick St. Michel: He’s an easy target of mockery because he’s basically the “how do you do fellow kids” guy, but Diplo does lay claim to being near the summit of mainstream pop music and having the ability to boost a song up a few notches. So it’s a bit lame hearing a total bore like “Powerful,” which just assumes drama without trying to create it, and wastes Ellie Goulding on a plodding go-nowhere song.
[3]
Thomas Inskeep: This is where we’ve come: EDM(-ish, in its biggest-tent sense) can now go adult contemporary; there is clearly nothing Diplo can’t do. Ellie Goulding’s voice, meanwhile, continues to be the blandest “weapon” in pop music.
[3]
Micha Cavaseno: I don’t know if it’s the production of Ellie’s warble, but the mass work of the song has Major Lazer and crew sounding like Zero 7 featuring Meaghan Trainor, with Tarrus Riley’s vibrato distorting that last L more than any digital preset ever could. It’s funny how something so lifeless can manage to be overwrought with melodrama.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Tarrus Riley could spark damp wood, but Ellie Goulding’s gift is to beam from atop a skyscraper as the brightest and whitest light. Even with her line about the scent of him leaving, she sounds as if she’s testing the line before stepping into the studio. Lazer’s insistent thuds shove her into the studio.
[5]
Scott Mildenhall: POW! VWOW! BWEW! That’s a fully accurate, onomatopoeic transcription of the chorus, of course. It sounds like a superhero movie: brief slams against the wall with a hint of the struggle it takes to make them. Tension surrounds those intermittent hits throughout the whole song. The quiet becomes anticipatory when combined with the thrill of the loud, and if the fixation on those moments could have been to the detriment of the song, Riley and Goulding’s overall performances, wrought and beguiled respectively, prevent that.
[7]
Ramzi Awn: High hopes are not always answered. But Goulding delivers a gem, and the single holds up surprisingly well given its many players. The verse pulses with the beat of a sidewalk street, and the synths twinkle in the right places. But overall, the mix is lacking in parts. Still, a solid contender for the end of summer.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Ellie Goulding sounds like she’s jealous she didn’t get “Earned It.” Tarrus Riley is warbling and puzzling. Together, they sound like they wouldn’t have chemistry even if they were in the same room. And Major Lazer has developed anhedonia.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Goulding and Riley exist on separate sexual planes here. Major Lazer is squeezing her into the glory box, and he’s treating this like a Tony showcase. The track takes its cues from each: squishy farts for her, stings and clangs for him. An insane disconnect.
[5]