Is this the song about Kels’ duvet we’ve been waiting for?
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[6.33]
Katie Gill: I’m so mad this isn’t as good as it could be! The verses are amazing, letting Clarkson go full tilt diva over amazing harmonies. This is Clarkson doing her best Back to Basics, meshing a modern pop sound with soft big band era touches. But that chorus! It sucks! The chorus only briefly dips into that amazing brass sound and restrains Clarkson to around four or so notes instead of giving her the big sweeping chorus that she so rightfully deserves.
[6]
Stephen Eisermann: In interview after interview, Kelly keeps harping on how the album “Love So Soft” comes from is filled with the songs she’s wanted to sing her entire career. Based on how confidently and brilliantly she sings this track, I’m inclined to agree. No longer is her terrific voice stuck in the confines of pedestrian pop-rock tracks (even if some were, admittedly, fun); now, she is free to let her voice and soul out on this groovy, coyly provocative number. I’m here for the awakening of the real Kelly Clarkson and I cannot wait to see what her latest album has in store.
[8]
Micha Cavaseno: On the one hand, time and time again Clarkson has wanted to go back to the soul-rock well in order to really express herself as a singer, and she isn’t the worst at it by any stretch of the imagination. But the fact is, “Love So Soft” is an Aguilera-esque series of rampings up rather than any proper sense of dynamic, and just reminds you that all she wants to do is perpetually crank it up to hit that dramatic high note.
[4]
Alfred Soto: The eagerness with which Clarkson slices verses with a vocal gulp recalls adult R&B stalwarts like Jennifer Hudson and K Michelle, but we know what top 40 radio thinks of both. The horns, wandering far afield from a Christina Aguilera record a decade ago, are misjudged.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: Title like a Lenor slogan, chorus like a Ted Rogers riddle. Something soft that you can’t rub off — is it oil? You can’t really “break” it, but GCSE science confirms that it can be cracked, and then sold, and thus bought. So Kelly Clarkson’s love is oil! And she is like oil to the water of that breakdown, which is something else she should sell and pretend never existed. It’s a shame, because at other times she is giving the full Clarkson here in a context that she’s very suited to, and hasn’t revisited that much since “Miss Independent”.
[5]
Ramzi Awn: Listening to a Kelly Clarkson song is sometimes like following somebody’s tangent to the point where you’re not exactly sure what they’re saying anymore but it doesn’t really matter. Because what matters is that it’s Kelly Clarkson, and her voice is strong as ever, and as always, she manages to “catch her breath” and deliver a solid late hook. Particularly at a time when catcalls seem to be the new norm, it’s refreshing to hear a throwback single about the softness of love.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: Kelly Clarkson’s sound has had enough pivots to rival your local music publication, and some of them, like that song, define their year. “Love So Soft” synthesizes her other two best, which never did: “Walk Away,” which lends agitation and raspy high notes, and “Miss Independent,” the Christina Aguilera co-write on paper that this is in spirit. Virtually every Aguilera album is underrated (free EMP paper: the predictably gendered gulf in goodwill between Britney and Christina’s careers), so the one single a year where the industry emulates Back to Basics always sounds both welcome and quaint. The sole concessions to 2017 tastes are the half-time chorus and maybe the alleged guest spot by still-prolific Earth Wind & Fire. Even the conceit, no matter how well it suits the Kibbe-romantic video and no matter that it’s a double entendre, is way off the zeitgeist — which, quoth Ariana Grande, prefers love so hard. One of the least-questioned album-cycle cliches is artists “finally making the music they want to make,” a revelation Clarkson (and everyone else) has had about four times over by now. But the least-questioned cliche of supposed pop journalism is writers deploying “her voice can become anything” — something Idol nominally, if not actually, selects for, and something that’s always “her” — as a pejorative rather than a skill. Clarkson’s career, now 15 years going, is an argument for the latter.
[7]
Hannah Jocelyn: This is what I wanted the Adele/Max Martin collaboration to sound like! “Love So Soft” starts off with some Antonoffian ahhs, but soon becomes its own little fun thing – it’s slight, but in a good way. There aren’t high stakes, and there isn’t any sort of subtext, but there is a totally OTT video and the whistle note towards the end. I do wish the bridge was longer, but there’s no point complaining when Clarkson and co. clearly made this to have fun and not much else.
[7]
Rebecca A. Gowns: Immediately, I’m caught off guard by the premise of this song. It flouts a lot of today’s pop song conventions, which are all about being hard and tough and cool, and if you’re hurt or emotional, it’s always with a touch of bitterness. Here, she’s really bragging about how soft she is, and adds, cheerily (!), “you break it, you buy it!” She’s reclaiming the power in owning your vulnerability! And then, I’m struck by how old school it sounds, reminiscent of the height of Kelly Clarkson, not a 2017 revamp. The beat clangs, she hits the high notes right on cue, then swoops back down into the chanting chorus. Listening to this song is like watching someone walk down the street backwards — impressive, and also vaguely worrying.
[6]