But she sure can nod towards the past.
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[7.33]
Alfred Soto: Borrowing a melody from “Dilemma” but given a twist in the Mary J. Blige “Be Without You” shaker, “Can’t Raise a Man” limns a familiar situation: impatience with the asshole boyfriend whom she can’t leave. But Michelle can’t sing a lyric without embodying it — without bodying it. Straightforward, devastatingly so.
[7]
David Sheffieck: I love the way this manages to feature K Michelle telling the listener what to do with her boyfriend yet never comes off as condescending or shaming – two pitfalls that seem so easy to fall into here. And while the production could maybe stand to push things into more interesting territory, Michelle’s voice is captivating enough to carry the song itself.
[8]
Jessica Doyle: The only line that rings false to me is “every day he’s a different dude,” as my experience with such men — similar in content if not in style — is that he remains distressingly similar from one day to the next, one month to the next, one loan conveniently forgotten or defensively put off (why are you being so difficult?) to the next, and the race is whether he can get your expectations low enough, bit by filed-off, silent-treatment bit, before your patience runs out. As for the rest of it — my daughters are both under age 5; if I start playing this for them now will they absorb the message in time?
[7]
Rebecca A. Gowns: Like “VSOP,” K Michelle’s production team digs into a hit via a classic (Nelly via Patti LaBelle). Also like VSOP, I’m a total sucker for it. The “ah-ah-ah-ah” refrain is the only bit of weakness, like a temporary filler they forgot to replace with something more professional. The rest of it is total head-bobbing arm-waving melismatic-belting fun.
[8]
Brad Shoup: In retrospect, it was no “Dilemma” at all, really.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: This song’s glib, and I won’t comment on the helpfulness of its advice, but K Michelle sounds like she’s giving it to you from a place of hard-won wisdom. And really, just as I’ve heard the odd woman I know talk about a relationship fixer-upper, this is nicely timed. Weirdly, the next time I’m in front of a campfire, I kind of want to sing that chorus as a call-and-response thing.
[8]