Readers of a certain age will wish the title were written “It Took Me So Long to Get Here (But Here I Am)”
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[6.25]
Alfred Soto: It took a few listens to get a hold of this thing; the first half meanders lyrically and melodically. The hey-ya backing vocals have pep. I prefer my sermons with wit and rhythm.
[4]
Will Adams: I should have figured from the title that the lyrics would be a bit on the nose. And yet the music’s similarly obvious, cruising-along-the-coast-highway-with-all-the-windows-down feel is right to my taste and a satisfying complement to the sentiment.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: There’s a breeze here I hadn’t heard in KT Tunstall’s previous work, reminiscent of Daybreaker-era Beth Orton or the Dilettantes. Toward the end she starts sounding like herself again, for better or worse.
[6]
Hannah Jocelyn: The lyrics are lovely, depicting KT finding herself back on her feet after nearly losing it all, but what makes me love this song is the manic production from Tony Hoffer, who also worked with M83 on their last two albums. It takes a little while to hit its stride, but after the first 45 seconds the thing barrels forward. It’s clean enough so it doesn’t overwhelm KT but dense enough that further listens are almost always rewarding. There are so many ear-candy moments, like half-time electronic sections, double-time drums, Cranberries-esque tics, and a well-timed key change pulled off as nonchalantly as I’ve ever heard.
[7]
David Sheffieck: Tunstall’s voice is somehow both hoarser and richer than I remember, and the light gallop of the first section of the song balances her well — catchy and bright, contrasting with the depth she provides. But it’s only with the bridge that the song comes into its own, where KT’s joined by a whirlwind of instrumentation that rises to her level.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: There are moments here, especially near the ends of lines, where Tunstall lets out a little bit of a grainy tone to her voice, and combined with the phrasing she sounds the slightest bit like Bonnie Tyler. That I’m down with. The song, however, is an average empowerment anthem seemingly built for maximum Radio 2 spins (which it seems to be pulling). Not bad, but not incredibly interesting by any means.
[5]
Micha Cavaseno: The auditory equivalent of that “the moment where you are able to take in the majesty of the world and appreciate yourself, everything you have, and everything that may be” trope. It’s trite and a bit cliched, but you get a sense of KT’s well-meaning hokeyness and satisfaction.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: How great it is to hear a non-triumphalist song about personal success that just sounds like an expression of self-fulfillment. There’s wide-eyed wonder at how it happened, pride upon realisation of her own strength and ultimately a heightened version of contentment. She could be talking about almost anything, but that’s no negative — the statement is so precise, so clear and so desirable that it doesn’t so much welcome identification with it as encourage it.
[8]