Two No. 1 hits in the UK, or two first-place showings at the Katy B lookalike show?
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[5.29]
Will Adams: Jess’ is the type of voice that deserves big, sparkling house production, and given her success with Clean Bandit and Route 94, one would think there’d be no shortage of top-notch tracks for her to pick from. “Right Here” grooves competently but fails to offer much excitement for what’s to come.
[5]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Sounds like the fun after-thought remix to a boring soul screed, which is to say this is a perky run through dull songwriting. Glynne is aiming for a particular type of huskiness but seems more distracted than sultry.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Gorgon City produced this midtempo club would-be, and from the trumpet as exclamation point and electric piano to Glynne’s chalky voice it’s insinuating if polite.
[7]
Anthony Easton: This is enough of an earworm that I cannot fault it for resting entirely on cliches, or that it might as well be a minor classic found by a crate digger. Extra point for how she sings “creeping.”
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: I’m not jaded, purist or backlash-happy enough for Gorgon City productions to sound stale. I just hate Jess Glynne’s voice: flat, soulless verging on tuneless. She’s got an enviable setup for a career, in that I’m envious someone else hasn’t got it.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: I wish Glynne’s voice didn’t sound quite so much like Amy Winehouse, but the contrast between her vocal timbre and the tracks she sings over is generally interesting. This is superior to both of her “featuring Jess Glynne” singles this year — glad to see someone’s saving the good stuff for her. “Right Here” isn’t notably anything, but it’s a well-produced and -constructed groover of a pop-dance track, and by “pop-dance,” in this case I basically mean “acid jazz.” The fact that all the new sounds in UK dance music these days (at least the pop smashes) are old ones from the ’90s is fascinating; somewhere, Groove Collective are weeping for the hits they never had.
[5]
Brad Shoup: She’s having as much fun as the bassist — who is doing a tuba impression — and she slides into Kiesza-like honks on a couple of occasions. Fun and a tuba are something, but they won’t fill non-Midwestern dancefloors, that’s for sure.
[6]