His fifth UK top ten hit, but we don’t feel the love…
[Video][Website]
[3.29]
Scott Mildenhall: More lightweight than his stupefying debut single, but for one marking a return it has an assured approach; comfortable hitmaking. John Newman is a known quantity now – a na-na-nada-knoooown quantity – and he harnesses that with audio showmanship he sometimes fails to produce live. The horns are as expressive as malleable, the “Billie Jean” bassline has an almost surreptitious magnetism, and the hook is dictionary definition standard; an irresistible invitation.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Come and get it, but should it go wrong don’t blame it on the night. Soul horns as fraternity peer pressure.
[3]
Thomas Inskeep: “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty” drained of any wit, charm, or fun.
[2]
Edward Okulicz: The verses of this have the same dated, empty feel of one of those 80s hits you don’t hear on the radio any more, with reason. Only this might have sounded cheap and empty even then. The horn-y chorus is an aimless bluster trying to work up some movement, and if it weren’t so bland I might be moved to laugh if nothing else. The spoken middle-eight is a genuine embarrassment.
[2]
Iain Mew: There’s something particularly horrid about the collision between John Newman’s grizzled approach to the verses and the plastic uplift of the chorus. As it lurches backwards and forwards, they each undermine anything the other might have going for it. Not that that’s much. The chorus is a disaster in its own right and comes off more Gregg Alexander than Greg Kurstin, in that it sounds like Ronan Keating should be smirking it.
[2]
Katherine St Asaph: Thank God my sister got married in 2013, not 2015 — I don’t think I could take a wedding dance floor with “Blurred Lines” and this.
[4]
Will Adams: Come and get what? No one bothered writing a chorus, or anything well-suited to John Newman’s honkin’ vocals, for that matter.
[3]