IT’S DER POP MESSIAH!!!!!!!
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[6.80]
Jonathan Bogart: Heard of joy? This is the Platonic ideal of joy, given voice.
[9]
Anthony Easton: Beyoncé can sing. I don’t know why this always proves to be a surprise, but it genuinely is. The song is almost on the edge of convincing herself, and when she says “stop,” it could go on for more than the one beat. There is a deft Supremes courting that should stand out a little more, and point off for the catalog of romantic cliches, but all of that aside, the takeaway is how well she can sing.
[6]
Doug Robertson: Beyoncé’s at her best when she’s being intersting — or rather, her music, as for all her world straddling, superstar status Beyoncé herself has the personality of a parking meter. Awkward time signatures, style mishmashes and euphoric surges of brass-based brilliance have all contributed to her current position as pop’s favourite CEO. But despite a happy vibe and every studio setting turned to summer, Janet Jackson would turn this down for being a bit dull and insipid.
[5]
Michelle Myers: If pop music is doomed to revivalism, one could do a lot worse than earnest circa-’82 Stevie Wonder pastiche. And fortunately, this isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. The buttoned-up sweetness of Reagan-era R&B actually fits Bey’s pro-monogamy message. The song feels as familiar and easy as the type of relationship the lyrics describe. They say love hurts. But when it’s good, it’s buoyant, a little schmaltzy, and resilient enough to withstand something like six key changes.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Key changes. More key changes. Beyoncé yelling her ass off over sassy backup vocals. She slows down only to savor lips that taste like champagne. When I remember Destiny’s Child, this is how they sounded in my head and rarely did.
[8]
Brad Shoup: An empty exercise in wedding-reception R&B, tossing out key changes like so many spike strips to arrest the attention. The rhythm guitar is crisp, and Knowles kills it in her high register, but if you’re not one of those YouTube 14-year-olds that brags about listening to the music from the ’70s and ’80s and ’90s even though all my friends love that pop crap, you may find the overall product wanting.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: This is my idea of what a good or at least functional Whitney Houston single in 2011 might sound like, so who am I to complain that it’s been sung by Beyoncé? The key changes are a little much, but sudden dramatic breaks in the music, actual enthusiasm and feeling from B and a quality tune make this work in spite of them.
[7]
Al Shipley: I love the song now, but the fact that I was indifferent to it before she sang the shit out of it in one of the most memorable live television performances of all time makes me question the strength of that love.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: 4 has gotten about as much biographical criticism as The-Dream’s latest, especially since the VMAs’ grand metamorphic ceremony after which Beyoncé transformed into Pregnant Beyoncé in all the headlines about all her unrelated actions. The difference is that with Terius, his life is practically text, and with Beyonce, it’s barely subtext and not interesting. Yes, “Love On Top” blows as much joy through its horns as air; yes, lyrics sites festoon Beyoncé’s words with more exclamation points than a Shania Twain album; yes, she probably thought about Jay-Z at some time during writing, recording or performing. But the point is right before the chorus: “Nothing’s perfect, but it’s worth it — after fighting through my tears, finally you put me first!” It’s a love song from someone who never expected to be equally matched in love, and it makes even the cliches and key changes sing as new.
[8]
Alex Ostroff: At this point in her career, Beyoncé has nothing left to prove. This is to our benefit, because instead of chasing trends or trying to innovate or show off, she’s able to relax, have some fun and let loose a track like “Love On Top”. Her performance is an effortless strut over classy horns and inobtrusive synths. Even as she leaps up the octaves for occasional high notes and gradually ascends up to the top of her range with progressively more ludicrous key changes, it never feels like her earlier vocal showcases. It’s casually joyous and utterly uncalculated.
[8]