Not one mention of that thing she did with Reba McEntire? Slipping…
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[5.43]
Alfred Soto: Not with voices this blank.
[3]
Al Shipley: If this signals that Kelly is finally going for the inevitable, commercially shrewd move toward country, then good for her, she sounds fantastic doing this kind of stuff.
[7]
Anthony Easton: I am glad that Clarkson is doing country, and Aldean is basically a rock star who happens to be working from Nashville, so the chocolate/peanut butter southern rock/chart country has strong potential here, and it almost makes it — a little too over the top, maybe, but the piano and the vocal bombast make it a power ballad almost as good as “November Rain”.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: Before Carrie Underwood galloped away with the American Idol crown, country on the show was a complete nonentity unless it was a punchline like Josh Gracin’s Procrustean-twanged “Jive Talkin’“. It’s still basically a niche now; Underwood might be Idol’s big country discovery, but Kelly Clarkson’s still the show’s big discovery, period. So it’s really strange to hear her on what’s basically a Carrie track. The song’s gorgeous, mind you, all wind sweep and moody harmonies. Kelly sings it beautifully, Jason manages not to mess it up and the two sound surprisingly nice together. But between this and the stapled smile of All I Ever Wanted, Kelly seems like she’s flailing, grasping at anything to retain a front-runner title she hasn’t even lost. All this is a roundabout way of saying I want My December back. Please?
[6]
Zach Lyon: I like this — how many country singles do we hear about the beginnings of a relationship? The problem is with Kelly, who seems to have a great country voice in the chorus but just craps all over her verse. Duets shouldn’t be about outdoing each other (unless that’s the point, in which case it still shouldn’t actually be the point) but she insists on reminding us that she’s still a pop diva. When it comes to the part in the melody where Aldean goes down (“feels like this“), she just has to go up (“it’s a sad goodBAAAA-EEEE-AAAA-EEEE-AAA“) and then we lose the prettiest progression in the whole song. Regardless, it’s still a good post-“Need You Now” ballad.
[7]
Chuck Eddy: I’m probably the only Jukebox contributor who’s had more use for Jason than for Kelly over the past half-decade or so. But I mainly have a use for him when he’s got hard rock riffs attached. And come to think of it, Kelly’s best rocking out, too — so this competently generic power ballad duet spells a major missed opportunity.
[4]
Martin Skidmore: There’s almost nothing here that wouldn’t have bored me 25 years ago.
[3]