Stand by your bland…
[Video]
[3.30]
Brad Shoup: This sounds like a praise song retooled — and barely at that — for the pop market. Furthermore, I suspect it was written from the title outward: check that clunky pronunciation. Perry’s line readings skew emphasis all throughout, actually. The drums are programmed to pop, not slam, though there are sections that could’ve used the latter.
[3]
Anthony Easton: You can take the girl out of American Jesus, but you can’t take the optimism with her: the worst instinct of aspirational blankness, matched to a vague spirituality, now completely unmoored from her historical backing. It was better when I was offended, but now I am bored.
[2]
Scott Mildenhall: Sincerity has never been Katy Perry’s thing. She’s got by well enough without it, but when it comes to delivering lines as grand and direct as “I will love you unconditionally,” a little feeling beyond that for the art of talent show bellowing would come in handy. Besides her though, “Unconditionally” pulses and crashes in all the same ways and places as Kele’s “Everything You Wanted“; in fact the similarities are so striking that it feels like they’ve simply fiddled around with the production, bringing in the same guitar sounds from “Roar” and written a new song over the top. The difference is whether you can take more from his angular caterwauling or her foghorn variety.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: For about 35 seconds, Katy Perry sounds interesting on “Unconditionally.” The opening portion of this song dabbles in something one doesn’t really expect from her — sparseness. It’s all muted guitar notes and faucet-dripping percussion, and it is really intriguing. Oh, but then here comes the swooping chorus and the vague feel-good/Christian-radio lyrics that are totally unexciting, if, at least, a bit darker than the elementary-school-sentiments of “Roar.” Scattered across are really interesting sounds, but the whole is just standard operating mode for her.
[4]
Edward Okulicz: It’s a bit of a failure, but at least it’s progression; her own “Wide Awake” directed outward, and skyward, sung as if she isn’t sure that she’s got the right words in front of her. Her voice has more or less barged its way into being iconic in the same way Britney’s has by now, so those in the market for a yawpier dispenser of power ballads, i.e. dullard radio programmers, need look no further. We need listen no longer — all of the charms expire with the verses.
[5]
Will Adams: Katy Perry’s belting voice hasn’t grown on me so much as it has forced itself into my ears through sheer ubiquity. At least in past singles, a decent hook would help it go down easier. But there is no getting around the strange scanning on the chorus. With all the wrong stresses in the wrong places, “Unconditionally” doesn’t deserve its flashy production.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Sorry, but the title was a giveaway, spelling out subject and intention.To signify devotion, she belts with enough force to strip the paint off a battleship. But she didn’t reckon with the polysyllabic title, which deforms her English into Duran Duran lyrics sung as Finnish high opera.
[1]
Mallory O’Donnell: Sounds far more like the debut single from an X-Factor reject than the latest missive from pop’s reigning princess of the lowest common denominator. Faceless, clueless and unnecessarily throbbing, it doesn’t make much sense until you realize that the “you” isn’t some Russell Brand but quite simply, Perry’s own career.
[3]
Jonathan Bradley: Even if I did love Perry unconditionally, I expect this would be one of those “even when you’re wrong” moments.
[2]
Katherine St Asaph: If Miley Cyrus suddenly dies mysteriously, this is why.
[4]