This is the Jukebox’s tenth attempt to describe the Guetta entity.
[Video]
[5.00]
Brad Shoup: After proving her mettle on choruses for Flo Rida (which I underrated by at least a point), David Guetta, and Hilltop Hoods, Sia re-ups with Guetta only to benched for an ill-tempered synth stutter. This is plainly ludicrous; if Guettz had a fantasy team, he’d be starting Tebow in Week One.
[4]
Jonathan Bogart: I like the idea that Sia has become Guetta’s muse after “Wild Ones” and “Titanium,” but they can’t expect me to embrace something called “She Wolf” that isn’t a tenth as interesting or odd as Shakira’s.
[6]
Will Adams: Guetta’s sense of musical history is so poor that I have a theory that he suffers from short term memory loss, causing him to forget, for example, that “Only Girl (In the World)” exists and blatant rewrites are unnecessary (ditto with “I Gotta Feeling”, “Sexy Bitch”, et al). This should excuse him from forgetting that there’s already a far superior track called “She Wolf,” but Sia probably should have said something. Maybe she was too surprised by the how relatively detailed the track was – complete with an active synth figure, a decent melody, and an authentic string coda – and agreed to wail on it. If I’d witnessed such a drastic improvement, I would do the same.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: Guetta is Guetta as ever, but he’s lucked into a great guest in Sia, whose voice outclasses everything else here. It’s still all about those big dumb trance outs, but at least the vocals offer something compelling.
[5]
Anthony Easton: The closest Sia has ever come to Celine Dion. She oversells the metaphor of the she-wolf and undersells the idea of falling to pieces, but somehow this yo-yo works as a personal choice (i.e. she sounds like her heartbreak is real) and an emotional one (i.e. the hysterics and the edging of Guetta’s production.) It fits together seamlessly.
[7]
Iain Mew: I like Sia a lot more here than on either of her previous big guest slots. There’s still a bit of bellowing but her shift downwards halfway through “I can’t compete with a she-wolf who has bought me to me knees” carries the drama much more effectively. On the other hand, cutting up her “falling to pieces” is the only thing that Guetta does which escapes formula.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Guetta’s music defies new commentary as always, so let’s talk lyrics. For once, the parenthetical in the title is necessary; these are two entirely separate metaphors, warily circling and snapping at each other but never making sense. We’re dealing with a she-wolf — wouldn’t she be torn to pieces? Do wolves really bring people to their knees, as opposed to their death? Who’s the she-wolf, anyway? Is she the other woman? Sia’s partner? Which one is Sia singing to? What’s this “the wolf is part of me” mysticism? Could a David Guetta song… be hollow bombast?
[5]
Mallory O’Donnell: It’s official — the mainstream is actually more pretentious than the avant-garde.
[4]
Alfred Soto: To call this camp is as original as accusing Van Gogh of overusing primary colors. How couldn’t it be camp with the piano and Sia’s rictus delivery of a conceit?
[3]
Alex Ostroff: Admittedly, this is pretty bonkers. It’s got Chantal Kreviazuk (or um… Vanessa Carlton, I guess, for the Americans?)-style pianos, weighty vowels, dramatic intonation and then a stadium full of handclaps and a big squiggly explosion. Somehow, it’s still less delightfully bonkers than the last She Wolf we covered. On the other hand, it’s kind of a joy to hear something this musically aggressive and out-there (for Guetta) from Guetta. It would be more of a joy to hear something out-there from him that I’m inclined to listen to more than necessary to review it.
[4]
Colin Small: Sia proves, first, that she is a great singer, and second, that a David Guetta song can actually not put me to sleep. All it seems to take is a little bit of honest emotion. Weird.
[7]
Andy Hutchins: Sia’s still singing Grey’s Anatomy-quality lyrics, and Guetta’s still marrying vocals that don’t blow anyone away to tracks that are slow builds to instrumental monstrosities in the hook that render all the vocals useless. At least “Titanium” was sort of enjoyably awful.
[3]