Hush, just stop…
[Video]
[3.00]
Will Adams: Because of “Rockabye,” I have no idea why this exists. After realizing that Ina Wroldsen co-wrote “Rockabye,” I suspect she’s wondering the same.
[3]
Iain Mew: “Rockabye: The Co-writer’s Cut” coming to a bloated Clean Bandit deluxe edition soon!
[3]
Alfred Soto: “Let’s talk about honesty,” she announces. Let’s talk about sincerity, though — not the same thing, and Ina Wroldsen is sincere about putting over yet another colorless chop-trop house track.
[2]
Thomas Inskeep: Musically this is a third-gen Xerox of “Shape of You,” so really, fuck this lame trop-house shit.
[1]
Alex Clifton: I’ve heard plenty of pop songs about breakups, and several that I’ve known were about the dissolution of marriages, but none laid out as starkly as in “Strongest.” The line “how do I explain this shit to our son?” knocked me sideways, and I felt off guard for the rest of the song. Breaking up a family is a far different beat rather than a generic breakup, and it’s far more affecting; I found myself near tears when the chorus hit, the narrator promising to be stronger for her son. In what would be a more generic song of moving on and letting go, these details stand out and make for a more cathartic piece.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: We, as pop critics, need a concise word for “songwriter shops a sonically trendy track around but nobody bites, not even Anne-Marie whom you’d think this is perfect for, so finally, once the trend’s at death’s door, releases it herself.”
[2]